Adapting an intervention: The Broward County Collaborative to Reduce the Use of Substances, HIV & Hepatitis (CRUSHH) experience

Background: The Broward County Collaborative to Reduce the Use of Substances, HIV & Hepatitis funded by SAMHSA/CSAP is a four session intervention that was developed for the prevention of the substance use, HIV, and Hepatitis among the adult minority reentry population in Broward County, Florida. The HIV prevention program selected was the Video Opportunities for Innovative Condom Education and Safer Sex (VOICES/VOCES) intervention, a single-session, video-based prevention program designed to encourage condom use and improve condom negotiation skills targeted to African-American and Latino men and women (CDC, 2007). After several months of utilizing the program, it became evident through client and prevention specialists anecdotal reports that the video did not meet the needs of the minority re-entry population. In an effort to remedy the situation the CRUSHH team contracted with the video production company who previously completed a video adaptation of the VOICES/VOCES for the Latino immigrant population in South Florida. Method: After a period of formative research with input from the target community, an adaptation of the VOICES/VOCES was developed specifically focusing on the minority re-entry population. Result: The adaptation of the VOICES/VOCES has received positive feedback and is serving the needs of the Broward CRUSHH minority reentry clientele. The development, adaptation and implementation of the VOICES/VOCES researched-based intervention has been instrumental in the evaluation gains that CRUSHH has experienced. This paper will describe the development and implementation of the adaptation of the VOICES/VOCES for the Broward CRUSHH program as well as the implications of this adaptation.