Reaching and retaining high-risk HIV/AIDS clients through the Internet.
The Internet is a popular way for people to meet casual sex partners. However, online outreach remains largely unexplored to promote voluntary counseling and testing for HIV. The Student Health Action Coalition's HIV testing program (SHAC-HIV) targets high-risk clients through tailored Internet outreach via chat rooms, social networking sites, and online forums. The SHAC-HIV model also demonstrates that nontraditional testing sites can provide low-cost, client-centered, high-quality services to support increased demand for HIV-testing services. Within the clinic, SHAC-HIV's testing model includes four major components: (a) reliance on a team of well-trained health sciences student volunteers; (b) rapid oral-fluid HIV tests; (c) universal, consent-based testing with client-centered health education and counseling; and (d) coordinated referrals for follow-up testing, treatment, and care. This approach reaches high-risk clients as well as undiagnosed infections. In 2007, there were nine confirmed positive results out of 389 tests, yielding a 2.3% positivity rate. This positivity percentage is higher than any other nontraditional testing site in North Carolina. This article describes the SHAC-HIV outreach and voluntary counseling and testing program with the aim of encouraging adoption of the model by other nontraditional testing sites.
Student Health Action Coalition HIV Services, Department of Health Behavior and Health Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 123 West Franklin Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27516-2524, USA. cfeldacker@gmail.com
Caryl
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Feldacker
Elizabeth
E
Torrone
Matthew
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Triplette
Justin C
JC
Smith
Peter A
PA
Leone
D000328:Adult; D003376:Counseling; D006679:HIV Seropositivity; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000458:organization & administration; D018451:Homosexuality, Male; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D008297:Male; D009657:North Carolina; D018570:Risk Assessment; D040242:Risk Reduction Behavior; D012944:Social Support; D055815:Young Adult