Community meeting 7

Tonight we held our first focus group. All four of us as group members were able to be in attendance and there were six men who came to the focus group. The following is the collection of notes I took while at the focus group  (FG).

FG's prior knowledge of HIV - there is no cure, it is no longer a death sentence, should wear condoms to not get HIV or abstain from sex

FG mentioned having gained their knowledge from family members, the LGBT Youth Center, but not at school as there is an abstinance only program taught in Utah schools

FG members have either not attended any focus groups or classes before this group or they have attended some community classes such as those held at the Outreach Center in Ogden. The Outreach program primarily targeted youth at the time the group member went there and they had condoms available as well as information.

When asked about HIV Testing these were the responses of the FG, testing has been done through their GP, through the Military (The military provides annual testing and additional tests can be requested), at Planned Parenthood, and at the Utah Aids Foundation

Identified barriers to testing included, not knowing where to go, cultural and religious barriers, insufficient knowledge of when to get tested and how often, fear of social stigma, fear of being positive so they would prefer to remain untested

The FG said that within the community HIV is a conscientious concern and they felt it should be a greater concern in the wider general population as well

The FG was asked what services they knew about that the UAF provided and the following was known, free testing is available, condoms are available, information on the affordable care act is available, physician information is available and various services for people living with HIV. It was also presented to the focus group that counseling, case management, prevention strategies and avenues for sharing prevention knowledge are also available.

A FG member shared that he didn't really know what to specifically share with his GP in regards to his sex lif and individual risk factors such as number of partners

The following were additional concerns and thoughts mentioned by FG members, there are cultural taboos with different clinics where some will label you as high risk whether you are or not, some clinics automatically assume you are high risk or that you are not using protection if you share with them just one thing, there is a fear of sharing too much with a GP because it is unknown what they will place on your record and you may be labeled and have future struggles with insurance related to this labeling

In discussing prevention program ideas with the FG, the following ideas were brought up,
attach UAF resources to clubs on college campuses
place adds on banner sites for social media
determine better ways to more fully utilize the UAF website
Word of mouth
hold a food drive and provide information about prevention
website incentive programs (these would likely not be a good avenue to reach teens but maybe effective with adults who do not share the same fears about using a home computer for research
have booths at job fairs where teens may go so they can obtain information while not being observed by parents or other authority figures
hold meet up events
list events on sites such as Whats Happening Utah
sponsor sports teams
have board game nights
have booths at farmers markets
have someone or a group of people assigned as event promoters to help get the word out about events and personally invite people to attend

The final thing we discussed in the focus group tonight was the types of items that could most effectively be used as incentives. These included, restaurant gift cards, movie passes, candy, end of season parties for sports teams

The Focus Group was held from 6pm to 7pm.