Healthy Living Project (HLP)

Healthy Living is an intervention for people living with HIV based in Social Action Theory. The intervention is designed to reduce the risk that those infected with HIV will transmit the virus to others. Improving quality of life and health care practices among people living with HIV is the other major focus of this intervention. The intervention is comprised of 3 different modules with 15, 90-minute sessions per module. The duration of the intervention is one year; each module is delivered over three months with a two-month break in between.

The Healthy Living Project sets itself apart from other HIV interventions because the content of the intervention is delivered to individual participants by facilitators and not delivered in a group setting. The facilitators are ethnically diverse and have experience as social workers, counselors, therapists, or community-based service providers. Participants are matched with a facilitator of the same sex who uses the following delivery methods to go through the modules: coping strategies; demonstration; goal setting; problem solving; role play. Each module is designed to improve quality of life in the following health areas: physical, mental, and sexual. More specifically, the modules focus on developing positive strategies for managing symptoms of depression, anxiety, complex medication regimens, injection drug use, and sexual risk behavior in order to avoid unwanted consequences for themselves, their friends, families, and partners.

To eliminate or reduce sexual transmission risk behavior, to eliminate or reduce injection drug use risks and to improve health care practices and quality of life among people living with HIV.

The Healthy Living Project was evaluated by a randomized controlled study and in 2007 the results of the study were published in the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. The study took place between 200 and 2004 in the following cities: Los Angeles and San Francisco, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and New York City, New York. People with HIV who were interested and eligible to participate in the intervention were randomly assigned to begin receiving the intervention immediately or to receive a delayed intervention; those assigned to the delayed intervention group served as the control subjects for the study. The difference between the people who participated in the Healthy Living Project and the controls was assessed at four time points, between 5 and 24 months, after the completion of the intervention. At each assessment, Healthy Living participants reported significantly fewer HIV transmission risk acts than the wait-list control participants (p = .007).