1
ABSTRACT
This study tested an intervention to reduce sexual risk behaviors in a high risk impaired
population: homeless African-American, Caucasian, and Hispanic men with mental illness. In a
comparison group clinical trial, men were assigned to an experimental cognitive-behavioral or a
control intervention and followed up over 16 months. Men were recruited from a psychiatric
program in two shelters for homeless men in Nashville, Tennessee. An ethnically mixed cohort
of subjects (54% African-American, 42% Caucasian, and 4% Hispanic) were included in the
study. Most had a chronic psychiatric disorder and a co-morbid substance abuse disorder. The
257 participants who were sexually active (130 experimental, 127 control) prior to the trial were
the main target of the intervention. An experimental intervention (SexG), adapted from Susser
and Associates
(51)
, comprised 6 group sessions. The control intervention was a 6-session HIV
educational program. Sexual risk behavior was the primary outcome. The experimental and
control groups were compared with respect to the mean score on a sexual risk index. Complete
follow-up data were obtained on 257 men (100%) for the initial six-month follow-up. These
individuals have been followed for the remainder of the 16-month follow-up. This intervention,
(SexG), successfully reduced sexual risk behaviors of homeless mentally ill African-American,
Caucasian, and Hispanic men. Similar approaches may be effective in other impaired high-risk
populations.
Convention