What Works for Women and Girls

facilitated support and suggestions for change from other group members. The trialcompared group counseling to whatever is the usual treatment (which was not delineated).Fifteen villages were randomly selected for studying men and 15 were randomlyselected for studying women. In each village, adult men or women believed by themselvesand other villagers to have depression-like illness were interviewed using a locallyadapted Hopkins Symptom Checklist and an instrument assessing function. A total of108 men and 116 women completed the study. Eight of the 15 male villages and 7 of the15 female villages were randomly assigned to the intervention arm and the remainderto the control arm. People confirmed of danger of suicide were not enrolled in thestudy but referred to a psychologist (Bolton et al., 2003). (Gray II) (depression, counseling,Uganda)YRGCare in Chennai, India, a nonprofit HIV counseling, testing and treatment centerfound that HIV-positive individuals reported that couple and family counseling wasbeneficial in addition to individual counseling for reducing stigma within the household.In all, 13,000 patients have received counseling. Since 1993, 5,657 patientsliving with HIV/AIDS have been followed and provided with medical and psychosocialcare. Among those, 754 couples accessed couples counseling and 698 accessedfamily counseling. Disclosure, pressure to have children by family members unawareof their serostatus, discrimination, and hiding medication that can alert others to theirserostatus were issues addressed (James et al., 2004). (Gray III) (couples, counseling,disclosure, HIV testing, India)A study evaluated the efficacy of an individualized psycho-education (PE) program inreducing psychological distress and risky sexual behavior and enhancing self-disclosureassociated with an HIV diagnosis among attendees of a walk-in non-governmentalvoluntary counseling and testing (VCT) center in Nigeria. Researchers found that atfour weeks post-intervention, significant reductions on all measures as well as reductionin risky sexual practices were observed in the treatment group compared with thewait-list group. Treatment group members were also significantly more likely to disclosetheir serostatus and accept their HIV status as a way of coping, compared with thewait-list group. Ninety-four consecutive individuals were asked to complete a pre-counseling,baseline questionnaire detailing their sociodemographic characteristics, psychopathology,sexual practices, self-disclosure intention and coping behaviors. They werescreened for HIV and post-test counseled. Sixty-seven individuals (72.2%) who testedpositive were consecutively randomly assigned to one of two groups: a PE program (four60-minute weekly manual driven sessions) (N=34) and a wait-list (WL) control group(N=33). The major outcome measures used were the Crown Crisp Experiential Index(CCEI), the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) (Beck et al., 1961), self-report sexual practicesin past three months, self-disclosure intention and the brief COPE (Olley, 2006).(Gray V) (counseling, risk behavior, sex behavior, depression, Nigeria)348 CHAPTER 12 CARE AND SUPPORT