WHiSPER: Counseling for Internet Partner Notification
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: WHiSPER: Counseling for Internet Partner Notification GENERAL ABSTRACT Background. Many persons with HIV are not aware they are infected. Partner notification (PN) is the process of notifying the sexual partners of clients diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease (STD) or with HIV of a STD/HIV exposure and the encouraging the partners to be medically evaluated. In community-based organizations, a counselor named a disclosure counselor is specially trained to assist infected clients with choosing from different partner notification options. Successful partner notification may curb the spread of infectious disease such as HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases (STD). However, results about the success of PN are mixed. In some studies, gay men were less likely to accept PN assistance. New approaches to PN that are acceptable and feasible may improve the PN process. The internet has the vast potential to successfully notify partners of an infected client of a possible HIV/STD exposure. Several studies show that many persons who are at risk of getting an STD or HIV use the internet to meet sex partners. Internet addresses may be some persons’ only identifying link to their sex partners. These findings support the idea of counseling infected clients to notify their partners of a possible exposure through the internet. Recently, a new website was created called inSPOTLA which enables users to send e-cards (electronic postcards) to sex partners to notify them of a possible STD/HIV exposure. The goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the WHiSPER (Web-based HIV/STD Partner Engagement Resource) training session. The WHiSPER training session is an in-depth training session on how to use inSPOTLA to notify partners of an HIV/STD exposure through the internet. The WHiSPER training session is provided to infected clients who choose to self notify partners by the disclosure counselor during the disclosure counseling session. The training session focuses on building the client’s beliefs that they are capable of notifying their partners by: 1) ensuring the client has basic computer and internet skill levels; 2) guiding the client to use a computer to log onto the inSPOTLA website; and 3) counseling the client on possible choices of e-cards and e-messages to send to partners and talk about any concerns the client may have in regards to internet PN. Methods. The main objective of the study is to examine whether the WHiSPER training session motivated infected clients to notify their partners of a possible HIV/STD exposure. There are four main components to the study: the WHiSPER intervention, a baseline survey at the initial visit, a follow-up survey 30 days after the initial visit and three follow-up focus groups. All clients infected with an STD or newly-identified with HIV who choose to self-notify their partners of a possible HIV/STD exposure can participate in the study. Participants will be randomly assigned to receive either the WHiSPER training session in addition to the standard disclosure assistance or the just the standard disclosure assistance provided by the disclosure counselor. All participants will be asked to complete a baseline survey at the end of the initial visit. Participants will be administered the follow-up survey 30 days after the initial visit to see if the participants notified any of their partners. At the end of the follow-up, participants will be asked if they would like