Phone-based psychosocial counseling for people living with HIV
Feasibility, acceptability and impact on uptake of psychosocial counseling services in Malawi
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 15700681 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Carrie M Cox (Baylor College of Medicine, corresponding author), Steven Masiano (0000-0002-2163-7313), Alick Mazenga (0000-0001-9544-754X), Madeline Stark, Michael Udedi (0000-0001-8769-4313, Ministry of Health), Katherine Simon (0000-0001-9232-2653, Texas Children's Hospital), Saeed Ahmed (0000-0001-9680-4553, Baylor College of Medicine), Phoebe Nyasulu, Maria H Kim (0000-0002-6279-5836, Baylor College of Medicine) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 11 |
| Pages | e3-e3 |
| Publication date | 2023-12-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Cambridge Prisms Global Mental Health (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2054-4251 • E-ISSN: 2054-4251 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/gmh.2023.84 |
| PMID | 38283875 |
| OpenAlex | W4389346536 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 51 |
People living with HIV experience psychosocial needs that often are not addressed. We designed an innovative low-resource model of phone-based psychosocial counseling (P-PSC). We describe cohort characteristics, acceptability, feasibility and utilization of P-PSC at health facilities supported by Baylor Foundation Malawi. Staff were virtually oriented at 120 sites concurrently. From facility-based phones, people with new HIV diagnosis, high viral load, treatment interruption or mental health concerns were referred without identifiable personal information to 13 psychosocial counselors via a WhatsApp group. Routine program data were retrospectively analyzed using univariate approaches and regressions with interrupted time series analyses. Clients utilizing P-PSC were 63% female, 25% youth (10-24 y) and 9% children (<10 y). They were referred from all 120 supported health facilities. Main referral reasons included new HIV diagnosis (32%), ART adherence support (32%) and treatment interruption (21%). Counseling was completed for 99% of referrals. Counseling sessions per month per psychosocial counselor increased from 77 before P-PSC to 216 in month 1 (95% CI = 82, 350, p = 0.003). Total encounters increased significantly to 31,642 in year 1 from ~6,000 during the 12 prior months, an over fivefold increase. P-PSC implementation at 120 remote facilities was acceptable and feasible with immediate, increased utilization despite few psychosocial counselors in Malawi
Cohort · Family medicine · Mental health · Psychiatry · Psychosocial · Psychosocial support · Referral · Adolescent and Pediatric Healthcare · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions · Medicine · Mobile Health and mHealth Applications · Internal Medicine
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| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |