Untreated drug dependency in HIV+ opiate and stimulant addicts poses a serious threat to the health of affected individuals (e.g., compromised immune function from HIV and drug abuse) and to the public (e.g., transmission of HIV via unsafe drug use and sexual behaviors). Retaining these individuals in drug treatments may both improve the health of these HIV+ persons and limit HIV transmission. However, there is some evidence to suggest that HIV+ addicts participate in drug treatment for dramatically shorter periods of time than HIV- clients. Directly and aggressively focusing on issues that address HIV+, AIDS, and the interaction of HIV with drug abuse within the context of drug treatment may increase the quality of treatment outcomes for these types of clients. The purpose of this project is to produce a structured manual that will guide drug counselors in conducting effective HIV/AIDS interventions with their HIV+ clients in order to maximize the retention of clients in outpatient drug treatment. This manual would have commercial value as a drug treatment product to be disseminated to the public and private outpatient drug treatment systems. A Phase II portion of this project would empirically evaluate the protocol described in the manual in a controlled clinical trial with random assignment of subjects to treatment conditions.
