HIV/AIDS Counseling Skills and Strategies: Can Testing and Counseling Curb the Epidemic?

OBJECTIVES: The human immunodeficiency virus/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) epidemic is in its third decade and has reached to alarming proportions worldwide. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than one million people are living with HIV with an estimated 56,300 infections happening each year in the United States. Diagnosis of HIV/AIDS via early testing along with pretest and post-test counseling is important for psychosocial stabilization and destigmatization. Risk reduction counseling as a preventive counseling method is equally important in high-risk individuals such as adolescents, substance abusers and in gay and bisexual population. The purpose of this review is to address a number of counseling strategies used for education and counseling of individuals at risk of getting HIV/AIDS and also among those who are HIV-infected. METHODS: In order to collect materials for this review, a detailed search of CINAHL, MEDLINE, ERIC, Academic Search Premier, Scopus, Web of Science and Social Sciences Citation Index databases was carried out for the time period 1995-2010. RESULTS: Some of the various dimensions of counseling are negative approach counseling, assessing readiness to change, and motivational enhancement therapy. CONCLUSIONS: Multiple approaches are used by counselors in providing education and prevention counseling to ‘at risk’ individuals and also individuals who have been infected with the virus. No one method is superior to another and some gamut of techniques are practiced by HIV/AIDS counselors.