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HIV/AIDS conference focuses on prevention, care and education
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Nationally known HIV experts shared knowledge with state and regional health care and social work professionals at the 12th annual STD/AIDS Conference Nov. 1-2 at Boise State University.
Specifics of effectively addressing the needs of rural, incarcerated, urban, teenage and other populations were arrayed under the broad categories of HIV prevention, care and education.
Education included such topics as K-12 teaching strategies; role-playing in AIDS instruction; the specific dangers and limitations of bloodborne pathogens; and an evaluation of various approaches to sexuality/HIV education such as Idaho’s PEAK program, which encourages abstinence, versus. “comprehensive” programs. Other sessions dealt with advocating for school health education and effective grant writing.
Prevention-directed breakout sessions dealt with a wide range of specific issues ranging from new needle access, sexual history-gathering techniques, and strategies to include people living with AIDS in the community planning process, to information from the recent U.S. Conference on AIDS. Other sessions examined community-based programs such as the Mpowerment Project, which are designed to provide prevention/intervention to high-risk populations This is a scientifically developed and empirically tested program that has proven to be effective in lessening high-risk behaviors in young gay/bisexual men.
The sessions devoted to caring for AIDS patients had a dual emphasis; first on recent technical developments such as new testing technologies for HIV, specialized information about how AIDS behaves in conjunction with Hepatitis C infection, nutritional strategies for patients, and current information about the varied available medication therapies.
The second aspect of the care sessions had less of a medical and more of a social work emphasis: with time devoted to HIV care resources available in Idaho, correctional system care, and especially, rural care issues. Dr. David O’Haran, Ph.D., Department of Sociology-Social Work, University of Michigan, delivered a lecture on “HIV Prevention Needs in Rural Settings” in his keynote address and again later that same afternoon addressed the same issues in a breakout session. O’Haran is one of the leaders of innovative thinking about HIV/AIDS care, education and prevention, according to Lisa Kramer, Idaho STD/AIDS Program. He stresses education as being the key to the problem.
“The need for knowledge is the most crucial need,” said O’Haran during his session lecture. He provided conference attendees with a list of recent papers from the literature compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that assessed various approaches to changing dangerous behaviors of high-risk groups. He also stressed a list of needs that must be met in order to effect these changes. They include the need for knowledge, for social support, for persuasion, for communication skills, for supportive community norms, which, along with the need for access to resources, is of particular shortage in rural areas.
Kramer agreed with O’Haran in her summing up of the value of the meeting of medical, educational and social work professionals at the conference, “When you can raise awareness, it’s a step towards prevention.”
Scott Horting