The Risk Avoidance Partnership (RAP) Project conducted in Hartford, Connecticut, tested a program to train active drug injectors and crack cocaine users as “Peer Health Advocates” (PHAs) to deliver a modular HIV, hepatitis, and STI prevention intervention to hard-to-reach drug users in their networks and others in the city. The intervention was designed to diffuse health promotion and risk reduction interventions by supporting PHAs to model prevention practices and deliver risk and harm reduction materials and information. We compared change in behaviors and attitudes between baseline and 6-month follow-up of 112 primarily African American and Latino PHAs, 223 of their drug-network Contact Referrals, and 118 other study recruits (total n=523). Results indicated significant HIV risk reduction among all study participants, associated with significant health advocacy action conducted by PHAs, and a relationship between exposure to the RAP peer-delivered intervention and risk reduction among all study groups. Findings suggest that active drug users' engagement in peer health advocacy can set in motion a feedback and diffusion process that supports both the continued work of the PHAs and the adoption of harm reduction and mimicking of health advocacy by their peers.

A study of drug use locations In Hartford, CT, Is designed to understand the environmental and social conditions within ·hlgh risk sues"where drug users inject drugs or smoke crack, In order to develop AIDS preventIon models that build upon the physical and social organization of these locations. The study assesses high-risk sites characterized on the basis of type of location or structure, presence and strength ofgatekeepers, and presence and strength of HIV prevention opportunities and pressures. A combInation of ethnographic, epidemiological, and social network methods ara used to document the characteristics, social organization, natural history, and dynamics ofthese sites, the network relations of site users, and the various opportunitIes for, or barriers to, on-site social-level HIV prevention Intervention. This paper provides an overview of the study and presents preliminary findings, Including the degree to which drug injectors and crack smokers use specific types of sites In Hartford. Thepaperalso discusses the ways these findings Inform development ofon-site, type-specific and peer-led or structural HIV-pravention Interventions.The AIDS epidemic among impoverished, urban drug users presents unique challenges to health researchers, treatment providers, and policy makers.

Peer delivered, social oriented HIV prevention intervention designs are increasingly popular for addressing broader contexts of health risk beyond a focus on individual factors. Such interventions have the potential to affect multiple social levels of risk and change, including at the individual, network, and community levels, and reflect social ecological principles of interaction across social levels over time. The iterative and feedback dynamic generated by this multi-level effect increases the likelihood for sustained health improvement initiated by those trained to deliver the peer intervention. The Risk Avoidance Partnership (RAP), conducted with heroin and cocaine/crack users in Hartford, Connecticut, exemplified this intervention design and illustrated the multi-level effect on drug users' risk and harm reduction at the individual level, the social network level, and the larger community level. Implications of the RAP program for designing effective prevention programs and for analyzing long-term change to reduce HIV transmission among high-risk groups are discussed from this ecological and multi-level intervention perspective.

In this paper we describe a successful multi-level participatory intervention grounded in principles of individual and group empowerment, and guided by social construction theory. The intervention addressed known and persistent inequities in influenza vaccination among African American and Latino older adults, and associated infections, hospitalizations and mortality. It was designed to increase resident ability to make informed decisions about vaccination, and to build internal and external infrastructure to support sustainability over time. The intervention brought a group of social scientists, vaccine researchers, geriatricians, public health nurses, elder services providers and advocates together with senior housing management and activist African American and Latino residents living in public senior housing in a small east coast city. Two buildings of equal size and similar ethnic composition were randomized as intervention and control buildings. Pre and post intervention surveys were conducted in both buildings, measuring knowledge, attitudes and peer norms. Processes and outcomes were documented at four levels: Influenza Strategic Alliance (macro and exo levels), building management (meso level), building resident committee (meso level) and individual residents. The Influenza Strategic Alliance (I.S.A.) provided ongoing resources, information and vaccine; the building management provided economic and other in-kind resources and supported residents to continue flu clinics in the building. The V.I.P. Resident Committee conducted flu campaigns with flu clinics in English and Spanish. The vaccination rate in the intervention building at post test exceeded the study goal of 70% and showed a significant improvement over the control building. The intervention achieved desired outcomes at all four levels and resulted in a significant increase in influenza vaccination, and improvements in pro-vaccination knowledge, beliefs, and understanding of health consequences.

Mental health screening and treatment services are needed in senior housing to address these high rates of mental illness. Unique constellations of correlates of depression for different ethnic groups underscore a need for culturally competent approaches to identification and treatment.