Health Intervention Projects for Underserved Populations

This is an NIH-funded R21 exploratory study to examine the efficacy of the HIV prevention program based on Motivational Enhancement Intervention (MEI) to reduce substance use and sexual risk behaviors and increase the enrollment in PrEP for high-risk kathoey (transwomen) in Bangkok, Thailand. This study is collaborated with the Department of Public Health, Chulalongkorn University.

Flourish Project is a community-based intervention project aiming to reduce substance use and HIV risk behaviors for transwomen of color in Alameda and San Francisco counties. Flourish Project offers HIV/Viral Hepatitis testing and peer counseling to motivate participants to engage in healthier activities. It also offers a support group and advocacy activities for stable housing/employment. Flourish Project is funded by SAMHSA and implemented in collaboration with Instituto Familiar de la Raza.

IWAY is a community-based intervention project aiming to provide trauma-informed care to reduce psychological symptoms and behavioral problems (e.g., substance use) and promote health and well-being for Asians in Alameda County. IWAY offers professional counseling, youth empowerment and leadership programs, a peer support group (“Boba Tea Talk”), and high-school internship program. IWAY is funded by SAMHSA and implemented in collaboration with the Asian Health Services in Oakland.

SHIFT Project funded by SAMHSA is a community-based intervention project aiming to reduce substance use & HIV risk behaviors among trans/non-binary youth of color in Alameda and San Francisco Counties. SHIFT Project offers HIV/Viral Hepatitis testing in collaboration with the Asian Health Services and individual peer counseling to motivate clients to engage in healthier activities. SHIFT Project also provides an environmental intervention and offers peer-led support groups “TransUnder30."

Phoenix Study funded by NIDA aims to longitudinally examine the interaction of substance and hormone use on health outcomes among trans people in the San Francisco Bay Area. Based on mixed methods, we investigate trans persons’ health outcomes in relation to substance and hormone use and sociocultural factors. We also offer a peer-led support group (TransUnder30). Phoenix Study is implemented in collaboration with researchers at Brown University and University of Michigan.

This project aims to prevent substance abuse and HIV risk behaviors among young (18 to 24) transgender women of color in Alameda and San Francisco counties. In collaboration with a local substance abuse treatment agency, we will develop, implement and evaluate the motivational enhancement intervention, which will be adapted and tailored to high-risk transgender women of color.

This collarative project explores what Cambodian female sex workers think about HIV risk, HIV infection and prevention technologies. The socio-cultural constructs of harmonious control and fatalism, investigated in previous studies with female sex workers in San Francisco, will also be explored and the comparability of these constructs across studies will be examined.

The research study adapts, refines and pilot tests an empirically supported couples-focused behavioral intervention, Project Connect, to reduce HIV-related risk behaviors among transgender women and their male partners. This study is guided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's evidence-based framework for adapting scientifically validated HIV prevention practices for heterosexual couples to transgender women and their male partners.

AIDS Project of the East Bay, in partnership with PHI, implements culturally sensitive and efficacious HIV-prevention programs for African American young transgender women between the ages of 13 and 29 in the targeted communities in Oakland/Alameda County, California. 

This five-year Butterfly Project will enroll 180 transgender women who live with HIV. The Butterfly Project will utilize innovative intervention programs  to engage and retain African-American transgender women who live with HIV. In addition, the Butterfly Project will operate a storefront safe place for transgender women of color and hold weekly support groups and health promotion workshops.

This study investigates the sociocultural contexts of HIV risk behaviors and drug use among Thai female and male-to-female transgender (kathoey) sex workers in Bangkok. This research will be used to develop theoretical models and HIV prevention intervention studies in the future.

This study describes HIV risk behaviors among Asian/Pacific Islander men who have sex with men (API MSM) in socio-cultural contexts based on an Internet survey and focus groups. The study will describe protective strategies against HIV/ATIs, which will be used in HIV prevention programs for API MSM in the future.

The project aims to prevent substance abuse and HIV risk behaviors among Asian/Pacific Islander (API) men who have sex with men (MSM) based on the collaboration of multiple community-based agencies, who will implement and evaluate motivational enhancement intervention and brief intervention, adapted for high-risk API MSM.

This randomized controlled study evaluates the efficacy and community impact of Motivational Enhancement Intervention and Brief Intervention to reduce substance abuse and HIV risk behaviors among African American and Latina transgender women. Priority will also be placed on disseminating findings and building capacity to develop a a full-scale intervention study.

The study will investigate homophobia/transphobia and other sociocultural factors that influence substance use and HIV-related risk behaviors among stigmatized high-risk groups in Malaysia: men who have sex with men and male-to-female transgender women. 

The Butterfly Project (BP) has three major components: outreach, intervention, and building and sustaining community for transgender of women of color in Alameda and San Francisco counties. Through the Motivational Enhancement Intervention, quality of life workshops, and support groups, BP will engage transgender women of color, increasing retention of those infected with HIV in HIV primary care and other necessary services.