Colorado Looks for New Way to Educate, Avoid "Safer Sex Burnout"

For nearly 20 years, HIV prevention educators have talked about the merits of condoms and the perils of unprotected sex. They've crossed the lines of race, gender, class and sexual orientation with their message, but now they want to make sure people are still listening. Educators fear the public has become numb to safer sex messages and say that new approaches should be explored.

"People are definitely becoming more lax [about HIV prevention]," said Mark Beyer, coordinator of the Boulder County AIDS Project's (BCAP) MSM HIV Prevention Program. "They've reached safer sex burnout." In upcoming months BCAP will spend an estimated $15,000 to $18,000 to take a closer look at the perceptions and opinions of gay and bisexual men about HIV and AIDS. The initiative is co-sponsored by Roche Colorado Corporation.

Nationally, gay and bisexual men remain at the highest risk of infection, followed by intravenous drug users. The odds of infection have influenced the behavior of different generations in various ways. Older men, Beyer said, are less likely to engage in risky behavior. "The people who watched their friends die [from AIDS] in the late 1980s and early 1990s -- that experience has definitely played a role in adapting behavior," he said. "Younger people weren't around to see people walking down the street with lesions on their faces."

BCAP, in conjunction with OMNI Research and Training Group, plans to use results from surveys, interviews and focus groups to design a prevention program targeted at gay and bisexual men. "We need to evaluate where people are," Beyer said. "Our assessment is around their own perspectives of HIV and of themselves. We need to find out what information people have, so instead of creating programs based on what we think, we'll ask the community."

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