Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

“Do You Think I Should Be Worried?” Building A Call Structure For Hiv(-) Callers To The Nightline, Ivy Epstein

Master's Projects and Capstones

Abstract

San Francisco Suicide Prevention’s HIV Nightline provides emotional support to those living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as well as support and basic medical information around relative risk and testing for who may have been exposed to HIV. Nightline counselors use a harm-reduction model, active listening, reflection of emotions, and encouragement to promote health maintenance and mental health self-care behaviors. Until now, there has been no process to assess whether callers had disproportionate anxiety about HIV given their actual risk level. Consequently, HIV(-) anxious callers could receive inconsistent information. The goal of this improvement study was to develop a …