Reliability and validity of a questionnaire on vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections among adults with chronic mental illness: PESSOAS Project.

Objective: To describe reliability/validity of a semi-structured questionnaire designed to assess risk behavior to sexually transmitted diseases among adults with chronic mental illness.

Method: A cross-sectional pilot study was conducted in one psychiatric hospital and one mental health outpatient clinic. Clinical, behavioral and demographic data were collected from semi-structured interviews and medical charts.

Sexuality, vulnerability to HIV, and mental health: an ethnographic study of psychiatric institutions.

This paper presents data from the ethnographic based formative phase of the Interdisciplinary Project on Sexuality, Mental Health, and AIDS (PRISSMA), sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and carried out in two psychiatric institutions in the city of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Results from ethnographic observations, focus groups, and key informant interviews with different groups of mental health care providers and day hospital and outpatient mental health clients regarding conceptions of sexuality and HIV vulnerability are described. The results suggest a diversity of notions about sexuality by both groups and point out the high HIV sexual risk in this psychiatric population.

A model for adapting evidence-based behavioral interventions to a new culture: HIV prevention for psychiatric patients in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

As in other countries worldwide, adults with severe mental illness in Brazil have elevated rates of HIV infection relative to the general population. However, no HIV prevention interventions have been tested for efficacy with psychiatric patients in Brazil. We conducted participatory research with local providers, community leaders, patient advocates, and patients using an intervention adaptation process designed to balance fidelity to efficacious interventions developed elsewhere with fit to a new context and culture.