Overview
This is a book about how to help people make changes in behavior to reduce risk of HIV infection. It features eight comprehensive, clearly written chapters that are filled with real-life examples and supplemented by informative tables.The book contains no figures.
Synopsis
The devastating course of the AIDS epidemic has shown professionals in the field that education is not enough--even though most Americans are aware of basic facts about HIV transmission, risky sexual behavior and needle use are extremely difficult patterns to change. This is a book about how to help people make changes in behavior to reduce risk for HIV infection. It features eight comprehensive, clearly written chapters that are filled with real-life examples and supplemented by informative tables. Taken together, these chapters provide help to those involved in HIV-prevention in the lifesaving task of providing and reinforcing the technical, cognitive, and interpersonal skills that are necessary for significant behavioral change.
The book opens with a thorough overview of the practical epidemiology of HIV infection and the conceptual underpinnings of this prevention approach. Delineating the major risk behaviors for contracting HIV infection, the author outlines the principles of successful intervention. Although the interventions are similar in their focus on behavior change, the author stresses the importance of tailoring them to the cultural, risk-factor, social, relationship, and lifestyle issues pertaining to different populations, as well as to individual needs.
The book then delineates a range of settings--including inner-city women's health clinics and gay bars--where HIV-prevention programs can be conducted, how HIV prevention can be integrated into the services of community programs, and the nature and format of individual and group interventions. Risk assessment procedures are described including methods to assess clients' present HIV-risk knowledge, readiness for change, situational and life circumstances that contribute to risk, skills needed to effectively implement needed changes, and current risk behavior patterns.
Aided by concrete skills assessments, role plays, and suggested client assignments, readers acquire effective strategies for motivating clients for change; helping them to learn better ways for handling "triggers" that facilitate high-risk behavior. The book also describes how to teach technical skills such as correct condom use and needle-cleaning procedures; interpersonal skills, including sexual assertiveness and safer sex negotiation;and cognitive skills for improving self-confidence about avoiding risk. Moving beyond individual interventions, the final chapter focuses on the role of prevention counselors as change agents for the community and community-level programs.
A critical text for students and professionals in mental health and counseling, substance abuse treatment, the social and health care services, public health, and the AIDS/HIV prevention field, Changing HIV Risk Behavior offers guidance, inspiration, and indispensable tools for building effective risk-reduction intervention programs in the communities where they are needed most.
Booknews
A guide to helping people make specific behavioral changes to reduce the risk of HIV infection, for students and professionals in mental health and counseling, substance abuse treatment, social and health care services, and public health. Chapters include: intervention settings; risk assessment; preparing clients for change; teaching self-management skills; sexual assertiveness training; and pride, self-esteem, and empowerment as contexts of community change. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Editorials
From the Publisher
"Smart, specific, and well thought out. This book is one of the most practical guides I have seen for those who care about real world strategies to stop the spread of HIV." --David Nimmons, Managing Director, Education, Gay Men's Health Crisis"Changing HIV Risk Behavior is an outstanding guide for clinicians, counselors, and educators. Dr. Kelly's comprehensive approach explains both the art and the science of HIV risk reduction, from the small scale of an individual counseling session to the larger process of changing social norms. In both theory and practice, Kelly helps counselors adapt strategies to fit clients and communities. This is by far the most readable, practical--and hopeful--text available; Dr. Kelly makes HIV risk reduction truly possible." --Richard P. Keeling, MD, Director, Univ Health Services and Professor of Medicine, Univ of Wisconsin-Madison
"This is a very important book, written by one of the pre-eminent scientists involved in work on AIDS risk behavior change. Based on a careful analysis of extent research and his own extensive work in the field, Kelly carefully outlines a set of procedures that practitioners can use to be truly effective in changing HIV risk behavior in diverse client populations. This book will be of tremendous use to front line providers, as well as to program planners, public health officials, and academics--anyone with a strong interest in developing and implementing effective strategies to change HIV risk behavior. It makes it clear that effective AIDS education must include elements other than those involved in much current practice, and arms professionals with an armada of very useful, practical tools that will doubtless make their work more effective and more gratifying." --Jeffrey D. Fisher, Ph.D., Univ. of Connecticut
"[The book] is written to help people in concrete ways. This will be a valuable book for many professionals....It is...an important book for all of us who have anything to do with AIDS counseling and education." --Ann Barrett in SIECCAN Newsletter
"This is a very practical book and the information provided in each chapter is detailed. The strategy chapters are illustrated with case examples and include suggestions for client practice assignments...It is to be recommended to professionals from a wide range of disciplines involved in the HIV prevention field, and is of particular interest as a thorough guide for those newly entering the field. The work that has been carried out by Kelly and associates to date has proved very exciting. A book that draws on this wealth of experience is a valuable contribution to the HIV prevention literature." --Jane Frankland, School of Social and Administrative Studies, University of Wales, Cardiff, UK
"...One of the book's strengths is the examples of how the strategies can be applied....The strategies are particularly appropriate for professionals who provide HIV prevention counseling and education for individuals and small groups...several...are relevant for middle and high school students." --Karin K. Coyle, Ph.D., ETR Associates, Santa Cruz, CA, FLEducator, Fall 1996