SMART +SA

Partner(s): Robert Remien Department of Psychiatry Released: TBA In development.

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is supporting CCNMTL and Dr. Robert Remien, a research scientist at the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, with a two-year grant to adapt and pilot test a multimedia version of SMART Couples, an HIV-treatment adherence program that has been shown to be effective in New York City HIV care clinics. The grant will allow the program to extend its reach to South Africa, which has one of the highest rates of HIV in the world. The project, part of CCNMTL's Triangle Initiative, will also enrich Columbia courses in the departments of Population and Family Health and Sociomedical Sciences in the Mailman School of Public Health and other programs that focus on health disparities.

SMART+SA will support counselors at health clinics in Cape Town, South Africa in assisting HIV-positive adults to adhere to their antiretroviral drug regimens through a combination of education and social support. CCNMTL will work with a consortium of researchers and Cape Town community members to determine the appropriate role of technology within the project. One aspect of that work will be to adapt the Social Support Network Map, an interactive tool that CCNMTL developed previously for use in the Columbia University School of Social Work. In early sessions of the intervention, study participants and their counselors will use the tool to map the participant's social support network in order to help them identify individuals whom they can rely on -- relatives, friends, community members -- to participate with them in the program. In later sessions, the map will also be used to help participants increase family and community support and help them overcome barriers to adherence, including addressing HIV status disclosure, mental health needs, and sustained long term adherence to HIV care.

Related categories: Medicine and Health | Training

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