Positive Connections: Leading Information and Support Groups for Adolescents Living with HIV (ALHIV)

This guide is designed to provide facilitators with background information about the needs of adolescents living with HIV (ALHIV), tips for starting an adult-led information and support group, fourteen sessions for support groups, and guidance on tracking a programme's progress.

Technical experts contributed to the guide's content, and its development was informed by focus group discussions with ALHIV in three countries through the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the Linden Care Foundation in Guyana and Baylor’s Teen Club in Botswana for field-testing portions and interviewing and a survey of ALHIV from 37 countries through the Global Network of People Living with AIDS (GNP+) and Save the Children.

"The goal of the guide is to help ALHIV:

1. Understand their HIV diagnosis and participate in the management of their care and treatment
2. Learn that many young people live healthy and productive lives while living with HIV
3. Identify strategies for positive living including adhering to their treatment regimen
4. Prevent transmitting HIV to others; avoid re-infection; consistently use family planning to prevent unintended pregnancy; and learn how to avoid infecting their babies, if they want to start a family
5. Develop life skills such as communicating effectively, dealing with stigma and discrimination, making decisions about their future, and improving their quality of life"

The sessions include seven parts: background information; a daily agenda; key messages; discussion questions; an activity; a review; and a wrap up. The emphasis is on providing a safe environment, a supportive group approach, and a differentiation between opinion and fact that allows for correction of myths and misconceptions.

There is a section that details interpersonal and facilitation skills, including:

• Nonverbal Communication: make eye contact; demonstrate interest in what is being said; consider sitting with the group, etc.
• Verbal Communication: speak clearly; encourage questions; emphasise and summarise important points; use a flip chart or chalkboard, etc.
• Listening Skills: practice "active listening"; allow time for silence, etc.
• How to Ask Questions: ask questions to find out more about a young person's situation; use open-ended questions and confirmation questions; avoid asking leading questions, etc.
• Use Empathy: let a person know that he or she has been heard; acknowledge the situation and emotions the young person faces; don’t scold young people; don’t be judgmental, etc.
• General Tips: take interest in your group; use positive encouragement to promote participation; be conscious of how you talk when leading a counseling session; be aware of the power and gender dynamics; be aware of your body language; listen as much as you talk; validate group members and their contributions; remember what it is like to be an adolescent, and recognise the strength and courage the group members show by participating in a support group.

Positive Connections is available for download both as a single file in PDF format (see below) and as individual parts here.

If you wish to order hard copies of the resource, please write to youthwg@fhi360.org.