title: Training people with HIV disease for involvement in community planning process: Project LEAP. Learning Empowerment Advocacy, Participation.
abstract: Social and political pressure, as well as public health theory, mandate inclusion of PLWHIV in community planning and policy development processes. Barriers to PLWHIV participation may be cognitive, instrumental, and/or affective. The authors report on development, implementation, and initial evaluation of a pilot project testing a psychoeducational intervention to increase organizational participation by people with HIV. Organizational participation by individual increased from a mean of 0.5 organizations at entry to 2.3 at follow-up. Evaluation data indicate that increases in self-esteem, self-confidence, and specific knowledge, along with demystification of organizational operations, networking, and modeling by project staff contributed to the outcome.
authors.affiliation: University of Texas School of Public Health, Center for Health Promotion Research and Development, Houston, USA.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Halloran
authors.forename: M W
authors.initials: MW
authors.lastname: Ross
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Huffman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003256:Community Participation; D003479:Curriculum; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000523:psychology*; D006285:Health Planning; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000458:organization & administration*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011209:Power, Psychological; D012649:Self Concept; D012944:Social Support