Making HIV Treatment and Prevention Relevant to Black Women

Segment Description: Rasheeta Chandler, PhD, RN, APRN-BC, FNP-BC, FAANP, FAAN, assistant professor, Department of Nursing, Emory University, explains the need to incorporate women at-risk for or living with HIV into the decision-making process if we are to end the epidemic.

Interview Transcript (modified slightly for readability):

Chandler: To ensure that efforts around HIV are inclusive, to end the HIV epidemic, include the women in the process. I think it's so important for women to have a voice in anything that is being directed toward them as far as behavioral change or intervention efforts or research in general. And this can be applied to the clinic setting, to their evaluations, to make sure that voices are heard. That is first and foremost.

And then I also think that we could see what has worked in the past, and a revamp of some of those things, updating them to be relevant to now. There have been efficacious studies that have been done in the past that were wonderful, but they may just not be relevant to today's population. And so maybe a revamp of things that were in the past, but we can jazz it up a little bit.

Those are the things that really come to mind about how we can work with this population in ending the HIV epidemic; asking them and then also utilizing what's been done, not reinvent inventing the wheel, but updating and giving it a facelift. I just want to emphasize how important it is to not exclude black women because they are the group that is impacted by HIV new infections after men who have sex with men. So, they are a very critical, important group to consider. And I’d hate for black women to be the invisible group until something terrible happens, we don't want trends to go up in order for there to be efforts for prevention for this group.