Several longitudinal studies examining changes in HIV

Several longitudinal studies examining changes in HIV risk behaviours for patients currently in
treatment have found that longer retention in treatment, as well as completion of treatment,
are correlated with reduction HIV risk behaviours or an increase in protective behaviours [32].
An important part of ICON’s role is to link young people with appropriate services such as
detoxification, methadone maintenance, sexual health and chest clinics. Source: ICON, Australia.
The relationship between HIV treatment and drug treatment is also worth mentioning. One
common problem that is encountered with HIV treatment is compliance. It is often difficult to
get the person to keep to a strict regime of medication intake. It seems however, that when a
person is involved in drug treatment, especially in substitution treatment, where they have to
come in to the treatment centre daily to get their dose of substance, it can help to associate
the HIV treatment to it. When they are regularly going to get their substitution drug for
example, they can at the same time get treatment for HIV. This can enhance adherence to the
HIV medical treatment.
Life skills
Life skills are also an aspect to be considered. Although providing or training life skills is not
enough on its own, as part of a comprehensive programme, it can be beneficial for youth to learn
skills to implement the safer behaviour they learn about as well as improve their functioning in
other areas. They often lack skills for use in other areas of life, and your programme can provide
a continuum of services, including skills that relate to areas other than drug use. The idea here
is to give overall assistance—to help them not only reduce risk behaviours, but eventually also
reintegrate into society, have social skills and be able to get jobs.
Of course it is often quite easy to say, include life skills in your intervention but the key is
implementing it correctly. When do you provide life skills training? What is the setting? How are
specific skills to be introduced? What teaching techniques do we need to use? Questions like
these are bound to crop up when you start including life skills in your programmes. For a good
explanation of how life skills education must be planned and implemented please consult Skills
for Health, WHO 2003, (http://www.unicef.org/lifeskills/SkillsForHealth230503.pdf)
Examples of life skills [33] that youth would benefit from are:
How to discuss safer sex with partners and rehearsal of these skills.
How to properly use condoms.
How to identify individuals in the community who they can rely on for support.
How to recognize and avoid risky situations.