This HIV prevention and risk-reduction program targets Gay men and other men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM), including men-who-have-sex-with-men-and-women (MSMW), MSM who inject drugs (MSMIDU), and MSM who use methamphetamine. Additional County of Los Angeles Office of AIDS Programs and Policy (OAPP) funding was secured for assessing methamphetamine dependence and craving among the meth-using MSM group beginning January 1, 2007. The Gay Respect program consists of community outreach, individual risk-reduction counseling, and a linked referral program. Beginning on March 1, 2008, OAPP augmented the Gay Respect contract, and we initiated a complementary Methamphetamine Community Level Prevention Project to support the Long Beach Meth Task Force.
Gay Respect is a modified version of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Disseminated Effective Behavioral Interventions (DEBIs), Project Respect (originally developed and tested at CBRS and three other sites nationally) and Respect II. The original Respect programs were tested in sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinics in Long Beach and other cities with populations of men and women who were HIV testing clients. CBRS’ present Gay Respect program was modified from these earlier programs to address the needs of gay and bisexual men, and was evaluated as an effective intervention specifically targeting the Gay and MSM communities with special attention to methamphetamine and other drug-use-related issues among these populations.
The project, begun in January 2005, was engaged in materials development and start-up activities in the early months of 2005. The Long Beach Gay Pride festivities at the end of May 2005 marked the initiation of the program’s full-fledged outreach and recruitment drive. As of August 31, 2008 Gay Respect has reached 5,460 Gay men, bisexual men and other MSM with outreach and field intervention activities. Four hundred-ninety (490) of those men have been enrolled into one of the more intensive individual risk-reduction counseling components. Presently the program is funded through May 31, 2008. CBRS has applied to OAPP for continued and expanded funding of the Gay Respect program (4 proposals) and an enhanced evaluation (1 proposal) of its methamphetamine components (submitted August 2008).
Gay Respect outreach activities are ethnographically driven, and target the Long Beach Gay/MSM and drug using populations. Outreach consists of brief HIV risk assessments and educational encounters designed to enhance recruitment into the more intensive individual risk reduction counseling interventions and facilitate the participants’ acceptance of linked referrals to additional HIV, health and/or other related educational services.
Volunteer participants who are enrolled in the Gay Respect interventions delivered to individuals (IDIs) participate in a three-session program with two additional follow-up sessions consisting of comprehensive HIV risk assessments, individual risk–reduction counseling and an exercise in which they develop, in association with their counselor, a personal HIV risk-reduction plan. This component of the program is based on the Trans-Theoretical Model (TTM) of behavioral change. In the initial individual risk-reduction counseling session, two behavioral change goals are selected by each participant. The subsequent sessions reinforce successful behavior change, provide individual counseling support for the progress made, and provide help for overcoming challenges that individuals have encountered in implementing any part of their personal risk-reduction plan. Success is measured by use of pre- and post-test instruments and noted in qualitative data recorded in confidential participant files. Hence CBRS provides individual HIV risk-reduction counseling and conducts research on the effectiveness of this program.
Gay Respect volunteer participants are reimbursed for their time and participation.
CBRS’ Gay Respect program, in association with the Substance Abuse Foundation and Choices Recovery Services offers Gay Respect’s comprehensive range of HIV risk assessment, education, counseling and referral services on site at their facilities.
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