Exploring a Model of HIV Prevention Using a Cognitive-Behavioral Skills-Building Framework with Black Immigrants

Abstract

Abstract This paper addresses the burgeoning Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) crisis in the black community in the United States, particularly black women. A cognitive-behavioral skills-building HIV prevention intervention tailored to the realities of blacks in South Africa is presented as a model that may be modified and adapted for HIV prevention among blacks in the United States. This model of HIV prevention must view blacks as a heterogeneous group that includes African immigrants, and cognitive-behavioral skills-building HIV prevention interventions tailored to the realities of black women are needed for the prevention of heterosexually transmitted HIV infection. The implementation of HIV interventions within accessible sexually transmitted diseases (STD) testing and treatment programs will provide the combined clinical-behavioral approach that is missing in HIV prevention interventions among blacks in the United States.