Adaptation and Acceptability of
HIV/GBV Intervention Tools
Michele Decker, ScD
Associate Professor PFRH
Project Fit within Your Portfolio
• Gender-based violence and sexual / repro health
– Epi (NIDA R03)
– Clinic and community-based interventions to prevent GBV
and mitigate health consequences
• Recent and related ongoing interventions
– Brief trauma-informed approach to raise awareness of
violence, provide validation, connect victims with care,
and impart harm reduction message
– Family planning clinics (R01 Miller, Project Connect OWH)
– Community-based setting (BCHD Mobile Van; JHU CFAR)
• improved safety and reduced sexual risk among drug-involved
women who trade sex
• Overall goal:
– explore this approach to reduce sexual risk and
improve HIV related outcomes
• Project goal:
– Obtain qualitative input from women and providers
on intervention content and delivery for traumainformed HIV care
• HIV prevention messages can be invalidating and feel victimblaming when power dynamics don’t favor women
• Clinicians aware of GBV but lack guidance in responding
• GBV enables sexual risk and undermines HIV treatment
– Partners: Moore Clinic OB team, House of Ruth
• Next steps:
– Development and testing
Why now?
• NIH R21 well-scored but reviewers wanted more
preliminary data on acceptability/feasibility
• Moore Clinic partners looking for guidance on
addressing violence and supporting survivors
• Policy window: Addressing trauma among
women and girls part of 2015 US National
HIV/AIDS Strategy (emergent from the White
House working group)
• National partner (funder): Futures Without
Violence keen to address this space
Role in PFRH
• Advances PRFH mission:
– Gender-based violence is a key driver of sexual
and reproductive health for women and girls
– Women’s HIV experiences profoundly shaped by
violence and gender roles/dynamics
• Education/training
– Opportunities for student engagement re: RA
positions
• Happiness