This study proposes to assess the impact of a provider-based intervention to enhance re-engagement and improve retention, adherence, persistence and viral load among challenging patients in Argentina
Motivational Interviewing (MI) has primarily been utilized as a counseling strategy by therapists to counter addiction and improve lifestyle behaviors. This application proposes to train physicians to utilize MI to promote re-engagement in HIV care and to sustain retention and adherence. The study will increase the reach of the original pilot study and increase its generalizability, expanding the patient population to a wide variety of public and private clinic and hospital patients, including transgender women, drug users, men who have sex with men (MSM), and heterosexual men and women.
The training will include MI skills and elements identified as most effective, MI spirit (collaboration, evoking patient motivation, honoring patient autonomy, recognizing and reinforcing change talk, and "rolling" with (not fighting) resistance. Physicians utilizing MI will learn to engage with patients in an empathic, nonjudgmental manner and to pose simple but strategic questions to motivate change; when patients resist change, the physician learns to ''roll'' with resistance instead of confronting it. If and when the patient is ready to initiate a change, the physician will be prepared to support their decision
Buenos Aires, Argentina
Buenos Aires, Argentina