New International Directions in HIV Prevention for Gay and Bisexual Men

It is widely recognized that current HIV intervention models are falling short of their goals. What are the alternatives?

To answer this question, New International Directions in HIV Prevention for Gay and Bisexual Men presents a collection of articles from European and American authors that rival dominant paradigms of HIV prevention. Researchers, practitioners, and community organizations will be challenged to examine current assumptions and to consider neglected aspects of risk behavior such as love, trust, and the dynamics of sexual intimacy. New International Directions in HIV Prevention for Gay and Bisexual Men explores models and theories that will help you develop more effective HIV prevention programs to better serve patients and clients.

New International Directions in HIV Prevention for Gay and Bisexual Men offers you fresh perspectives on prevention work by examining risk behaviors in the interactional, communal, and social contexts in which they are practiced. You will receive alternative explanations and reasons for HIV risk that go beyond current approaches and that introduce possibilities for new intervention strategies. Written by experts in the field, the chapters in New International Directions in HIV Prevention for Gay and Bisexual Men will give you insight into new ideas and developments, including:
placing a greater emphasis on improving successful risk management strategies as opposed to quantifying risk factors
examining the meaning and context of sexual acts which occur in casual encounters or steady partnerships and incorporating their relevancy into prevention work
considering the effects that cultural context and socially constructed meanings have on prevention work and incorporating individuals’values and feelings into prevention strategies
focusing on more realistic goals of harm reduction that take sexual decision making into consideration as opposed to expecting abstinence
relating the various aspects of sexual encounters--physical attraction, intimacy, reciprocity, and power--to reasons why men choose not to use condoms

Examining how gay men can underestimate the risk of HIV in order to meet needs of intimacy, New International Directions in HIV Prevention for Gay and Bisexual Men will help you understand the symbolic dimension of sexual contact. The normal, everyday reasons for having sex without a condom are explored, questioning models which often characterize unprotected sex as being the result of low self-esteem, substance abuse, or some other psychological vulnerability.

Presenting data from both qualitative and quantitative research conducted at group and individual levels, this book reveals the complexity of risk behavior, the richness of sexual experience, and the importance of respecting the unique context in which gay men live their sexual lives. New International Directions in HIV Prevention for Gay and Bisexual Men will help you understand this point of view, enabling you to provide patients and clients with more effective HIV prevention and risk management services.