Changing Directions in HIV Prevention: The Move Toward a Psychosocial Model

ABSTRACT

Although some HIV prevention programs have been successful in helping gay and bisexual men change their sexual behaviors, rates of HIV infection continue to increase. In an attempt to address this problem, social workers need to move beyond traditional HIV prevention approaches to a psychosocial model of HIV prevention. Based on the work of previous researchers, this approach assumes that a combination of individual, psychological, and social factors contribute to risky sex in gay and bisexual men. Because social workers are trained to view problems from a psychosocial framework, they are already in a position to develop programs incorporating the psychosocial model. This article examines the psychosocial model of HIV prevention and the various psychosocial factors that may contribute to high-risk sexual behavior and concludes with examples of prevention research that have already incorporated the model.

KEYWORDS:

• Gay men
• MSM
• high-risk sex
• unsafe sex
• HIV prevention
• social work

Edward J. Alessi, LCSW, is a Doctoral Candidate, New York University Silver School of Social Work. He also is an adjunct lecturer at the NYU Silver School of Social Work and the Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service.

The author is grateful to Dr. James I. Martin at the NYU Silver School of Social Work for his comments on an earlier draft of this article.