Healthy Divas is an evidence-informed intervention that empowers transgender women with HIV to accomplish personalized gender affirmation and HIV health goals through peer-facilitated counseling sessions. In collaboration with HIV experts and community members, E2i adapted Healthy Divas for the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program (RWHAP) and produced a toolkit that provides the resources needed to implement Healthy Divas within RWHAP settings and other HIV care organizations.
Goals
To empower transgender women with HIV to identify and accomplish individualized health care goals related to gender affirmation and HIV
To improve engagement and retention in HIV care, as well as adherence to ART, in order to improve viral suppression
Priority Population
Many transgender women with HIV can benefit from Healthy Divas.
Organizations may choose to focus recruitment efforts on transgender women who need support in becoming or staying engaged in care, or who struggle with taking ART as prescribed.
Core Elements
1. Trans-Identified Peer Counselor
Peer counselors, who are transgender women themselves, play a crucial role in engaging other transgender women in Healthy Divas.
2. Six Individual Sessions
Healthy Divas clients participate in six individual sessions with a peer counselor. Sessions focus on:
A personal health care vision
Individual strengths
Assertive communication
Support networks
Successes and challenges
Future health goals
3. Group Workshop
Healthy Divas clients participate in one group workshop with other transgender women clients. During the workshop, clients receive information from, and have their questions answered by, a gender-affirming medical provider and an HIV provider.
4. Engagement in Care and Supportive Services
Healthy Divas clients receive help with becoming engaged in:
HIV care and services
Gender-affirming care and services
Supportive services, such as housing assistance, employment agencies, legal services, food banks, mental health counseling, and substance use disorder treatment.
Duration
Six individual sessions and one group session delivered over three months
Settings
HIV primary care settings, or
Community-based organizations or AIDS service organizations that link directly to HIV primary care
Toolkit Components
This Guide includes:
How to plan and implement the intervention
Lessons learned during implementation in RWHAP settings
A Spanish version of the Implementation Guide iscoming soon!
Birmingham AIDS Outreach (BAO), Birmingham, Alabama
RWHAP service providers share valuable strategies and lessons learned from implementing Healthy Divas in their organizations.
Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey
RWHAP service providers share valuable strategies and lessons learned from implementing Healthy Divas in their organizations.
Cal PEP, Oakland, CA
RWHAP service providers share valuable strategies and lessons learned from implementing Healthy Divas in their organizations.
Watch an instructional dramatization of how to deliver Healthy Divas to clients.
Download posters and a brochure that explain Healthy Divas and its benefits for clients. You can add your organization's contact information to these materials and distribute them in your clinic.
