142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

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299648
Utilizing a participant-driven approach to design and implement an online HIV prevention intervention for young Black MSM and Black Transwomen

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Diana Rowan, MSW, PhD , Department of Social Work, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
Jeffrey Shears, PhD , Social Work, UNC Greensboro/NC A&T, Greensboro, NC
Darrin Johnson, MPA , Social Work, UNC Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
Issues:  Young (aged 18 to 30) black men who have sex with men (YBMSM) have a higher rate of HIV incidence when compared to other racial and age groups.  There is a need for programs which are culturally-based rather than adapted.  When working with specific sub-cultures like the house/ball community, the community driven participatory approach to intervention development, implementation, and evaluation becomes even more important.

Description:  To better serve this population we developed a new, culturally-based HIV prevention intervention.  To increase its acceptability and impact we engaged members of the target population in its design and subsequent implementation.  The project’s website consists of holistic health content including HIV/STD information, a video series about sexual risk created by the target population, career/education advice, blogs, and other social networking activities designed to build community.

Lesson Learned: Involving members of the project population is critical to understand and address the specific needs, strengths, and vulnerabilities of the targeted group.  We created a collaborative council to provide leadership from the community and empowered a “street team” to provide specific feedback to guide development and implementation. Further, we acknowledge the differences among and within sub-groups, such as the house/ball and transgender communities, and include elements in the intervention specifically designed for each, such as unique aspects of sexual risk behaviors. 

Recommendation: Cultural tailoring of an existing evidence-based intervention is good practice; however, it is better practice to invite members of the population to contribute to and provide leadership for design of a new culturally-based intervention.

Learning Areas:

Administer health education strategies, interventions and programs
Assessment of individual and community needs for health education
Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs

Learning Objectives:
Explain how a participant-driven approach was used to design and implement a culturally-based HIV prevention intervention for young Black MSM and transwomen

Keyword(s): Underserved Populations, Community-Based Research (CBPR)

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am an Assistant Professor of social work at UNC Charlotte. I am Principal Investigator on a CDC Minority AIDS Research Initiative (MARI) funded research study that is the topic of this presentation. I am a licensed clinical social worker and have a PhD in social work.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.