16th International AIDS Conference Toronto, Canada - August 13 - 18, 2006

BEING POSITIVE ABOUT STAYING NEGATIVE; THE POWER OF FIRST PERSON NARRATIVE IN HIV PREVENTION

Int Conf AIDS. 2006 Aug 13-18;16 Abstract No. MoAc0102

Grierson J.¹, Batrouney C.², Mclean M.³, Kennedy M.^4
1Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, Living With HIV Program, Melbourne, Australia, ²Victorian AIDS Council / Gay Men's Health Centre, Health Promotion Program, Melbourne, Australia, ³Victorian AIDS Council / Gay Men's Health Centre, Health Promotion Program, Claremont Street South Yarra, Australia, ⁴Victorian AIDS Council / Gay Men's Health Centre, Melbourne, Australia

ISSUES: After 20 years of providing Victorian MSM with HIV prevention information, and in response to rising HIV notifications, the Victorian AIDS Council / Gay Men’s Health Centre developed a multi-faceted, integrated health promotion program which included the Staying Negative campaign. Based on the aspirational and emotive techniques of advertising and social marketing, this approach moves beyond the provision of HIV prevention information and aims to motivate HIV negative MSM to value and preserve their HIV negative status.

DESCRIPTION: Staying Negative is an integrated multi-faceted program that directly addresses the aspirational value of remaining HIV negative. Initial focus testing suggested that emphasising the benefits and positive value of HIV negativity was more effective than an approach emphasizing the negative aspects of being HIV positive. Names and faces of HIV negative men appeared in press ads, on billboards, postcards and other health promotion material with a minimum of explanatory detail. A website featuring first person narratives of the sexual histories of these men has both highlighted factors that reinforce individual decision making and strategies that have enabled them to remain HIV negative as well as those factors that compromise MSM’s HIV prevention efforts (including depression, drug and alcohol use and misconceptions around sexual health).

LESSONS LEARNED: An approach that promotes the aspirational value of HIV negativity has the potential to generate productive discourse and reflective practices both within the gay community and the HIV sector. Promoting HIV negativity does not stigmatise HIV positive gay men but rather creates a discursive space where multiple experiences of living within the HIV/AIDS epidemic can be expressed.

RECOMMENDATIONS: This approach will continue informing our thinking in relation to the work of the program while allowing us a ‘snapshot’ of current issues facing homosexually active men (both HIV positive and negative) living in the midst of an ongoing epidemic.

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2006-08-13
MoAc0102

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