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HIV Office on Psychology Education (HOPE)
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The HOPE Program is funded by a five-year contract with the Center for Mental Health Services (CMHS) of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The American Psychological Association (APA) Office on AIDS administers the HOPE Programs network of regional HIV/AIDS trainers.
Through HOPE's national train-the-trainer model, the Office on AIDS endeavors
to enhance psychologists' ability to competently and compassionately respond
to people infected and affected by HIV. The HOPE Program has trained and
certified more than 450 Regional HOPE Program Trainers to deliver interactive
workshops for mental health providers in their area. These trainers have
in turn provided HOPE curriculum training in their communities to more
than 25,300 mental health professionals.
Primary Goals of the HOPE Program
Types of Training Offered by the HOPE Program
How We Select and Train Our Regional Trainers
How to Sponsor a Training in Your Area
The National Training Conference (NTC)
How to Locate a Trainer in Your Area
To Contact the HOPE Program
Primary Goals of the HOPE Program
- Improve HIV treatment and prevention services by educating psychologists
and other mental health practitioners about effective and ethical ways
to deliver mental health services to people with HIV/AIDS;
- Increase the number of psychologists who work with persons living
with HIV/AIDS and the number of psychologists who have specialized expertise
in training mental health providers about delivering mental health services
to people living with HIV/AIDS; and
- Improve HIV-related education for psychology students in graduate
programs, professional schools, and internship programs.
To meet these goals, the APA HOPE Program is conducting the following
activities:
- Deliver HIV-related mental health training to more than 5,000 psychologists
and other mental health providers through local and regional HOPE Program
trainings
- Provide technical assistance to HOPE Program Regional Trainers involved
with developing and implementing HIV/AIDS workshops in their area;
- Develop new curricula that incorporate state-of-the-science knowledge
associated with mental health care for persons living with and affected
by HIV/AIDS;
- Conduct a National Training Conference (NTC) for new and veteran HOPE
Program Regional Trainers; and
- Train faculty of grantees funded under the Center for Mental Health
Services (CMHS) HIV/AIDS Mental Health Care Provider Education in HIV/AIDS
Program to deliver revised versions of a previously created HOPE Program
curriculum entitled "Ethical Issues in HIV/AIDS Mental Health Practice."
Types of Training Offered by the HOPE Program
HOPE Regional Trainers design their workshops, based on APA-approved
curricula, to reach a diverse group of participants including: psychologists,
psychiatrists, social workers, nurses, educators, administrators, medical/graduates
students, and lay people.
Trainings have been custom-tailored for a variety of settings including:
school-based programs; community conferences; graduate courses; hospital
in-services; professional meetings; and the military.
How We Select and Train Our Regional Trainers
The HOPE Program recruits doctoral level psychology professionals to
become Regional Trainers through descriptive articles and advertisements
in APA division and other professional newsletters, and direct mailings
to targeted national organizations and groups.
Individuals who wish to become HOPE Regional Trainers submit an application
form, curriculum vitae, a letter describing their HIV-related practice,
teaching or training, and research experience.
A committee of reviewers chooses applicants based on experience, location
or area served, and the individual's desire and perceived ability to reach
out to his or her community.
Those chosen must commit to train at least 30 mental health professionals
in their localities. Consideration is given to those who reflect the diversity
of those communities being hit the hardest by the HIV epidemic in the
United States.
Listed below are the nine areas of professional development and service-delivery modules. (Requires free download of Adobe Reader.)
- HIV Virology, Clinical Course, Medical Treatments, Epidemiology & Antibody Testing (PDF, 366K)
- Integrating Primary and Behavioral Health Care (PDF, 230K)
- Assessment Issues and Strategies (PDF, 507K)
- General Issues in Psychotherapeutic Intervention for People Living with HIV (PDF, 428K)
- Prevention Issues for the Mental Health Provider(PDF, 376K)
- HIV & Families (PDF, 190K)
- Work in the Lives of People Living with HIV Disease: Roles for Psychologist or HIV and Work: New Challenges or Psychologists(PDF, 357K)
- HIV, Mental Health, and Prisons
(PDF, 439K)
- Club Drugs Use and HIV/AIDS
- Transgender Individuals and HIV/AIDS (PDF, 307K)
Each stand-alone module is designed to include a series of brief, topic-specific
didactic lectures for trainers and combined with overheads or slides.
Trainers will be able to pick and choose between lectures and interactive
skills-building exercises as well facilitated discussion questions and
topics in order to provide a training that is responsive to the needs
of individual audiences.
The National Training Conference (NTC)
The most recent National Training Conference (NTC) took place in January 2006. Newly recruited and veteran Trainers took part in this process-driven experience designed to strengthen their training development, delivery, and community networking skills. State-of-the-science plenary sessions offered insight into the changing professional environment and disease trends coupled with their implications for clinical practice, which updated and reinforced HOPE Trainers' already extensive HIV knowledge and experience base. The team-centered NTC experience reinforces the HOPE National Training Network concept and enables trainers to interact with and draw from the experience of their expert colleagues from diverse backgrounds across the country.
The focus of this training conference has changed since the inception of the HOPE program. During the conference, HOPE faculty review the new HOPE training modules with newly recruited Trainers and supervise teach-backs and spend a large part of the conference demonstrating, discussing, and developing program planning, training, and community outreach skills. This focus provides trainers a basis for more comfortable and successful training and outreach when they return to their communities.
When HOPE Regional Trainers from the NTC, they are equipped with the information, skills, training materials, (HOPE Training Package), and the support of their colleagues and HOPE Staff in order to provide state-of-the-science HIV-related continuing education to mental health professionals in their communities.
Traditionally, HOPE conducts one NTC per contract period. If awarded a contract in 2009, the next NTC will take place in 2011.
How to Locate a Trainer in Your Area
HOPE Regional Trainers are located in 47 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and British Columbia.
Email: HOPE Staff
Telephone: David DeVito, Program Training Director at 202-216-7603.
Write:
American Psychological Association
Office on AIDS — Attn: HOPE Program
750 First Street, NE
Washington, DC. 20002-4242
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