HIV prevention programs targeted to heterosexuals have most often been delivered in individual or group modalities that principally focus on women as the agents of change. To date, most HIV risk-reduction interventions are not specifically designed to address issues involving intimate couples or to include both partners. Approaches which take into account relationship dynamics and communication patterns are needed to enable women to initiate or sustain condom use with their main steady partners. In this paper, we present a relationship-based HIV intervention, Project Connect, delivered to 217 African American and Latino heterosexual couples recruited from primary healthcare settings. The paper will first discuss the rationale and the conceptual framework underlying the intervention and then elaborate on the intervention components. Finally, lessons learned in the implementation of the project and implications of Project Connect to future practice and policy making for HIV interventions for heterosexual couples will be discussed.

Insufficient training of health professionals has often been cited as a major barrier to improving the system of care for dying patients and for the bereaved. Although specific problems have been identified for physicians and nurses, the problems of social work in this substantive area have only recently been explored. This study used a practitioner survey, focus groups, and a survey of faculty of schools of social work to broaden the information base. Results suggested that not unlike the professions of medicine and nursing, social work knowledge and skill development in the care of the dying is uneven and not integrated sufficiently with theoretical concepts and research. Social workers felt unprepared for this work by their master's level training and unsupported by continuing education programs. They recognized few social work scholars who could function as role models by providing comprehensive training, knowledge building, innovation, and advocacy. A program for leadership development was created to test new approaches to professional development in the care of the dying and the bereaved.

Of a sample of 43 bereaved parents of pediatric cancer patients, 38 reported experiencing feelings of continued connection with their deceased child. Analysis of the data revealed several consistent themes in the experiences and in their impact on the parental bereavement process. Implications for research and clinical practice are discussed.

Although intimate partner violence (IPV) may occur throughout a woman's life course, there has been a paucity of research on the experiences of victimization among midlife and older women. This article examines both the prevalence of IPV among a sample of women ages 50 to 64 (N=620), who were recruited at an emergency department and primary care clinics in an urban setting, and the associated factors for the subsample of these women who reported IPV (n=34). More than 5 percent of the women reported experiencing some form of abuse by their partners within the past two years. Bivariate analyses comparing victims and nonvictims indicate that higher proportions of women who reported abuse had received public assistance and had a recent history of homelessness. In addition, victims of IPV reported higher frequencies of HIV risk factors than did nonvictims, including having a partner who insisted on sex without a condom, having sex with a man they knew or suspected was an IV drug user, and experiencing symptoms or receiving a diagnosis or treatment for a sexually transmitted infection. Significantly higher percentages of abused women reported being tested for HIV and being HIV seropositive. Implications of the findings for social workers are discussed.

This article describes the significant role of community members during the intervention development phase of a randomized clinical trial of an HIV prevention intervention for African American and Latina women and their main sexual partners. Sixteen women and 13 male partners were engaged as "consultants" in a series of focus group discussions aimed at exploring their reactions and ideas about potential topics and approaches for the intervention. Each individual participated in three focus groups-two single-sex groups and a third that brought women and their male partners together. Focus group data extended our knowledge about the impact of relationship dynamics on safer sex negotiation and allowed us to design an intervention that is contextually specific and pragmatic. Target community members can provide critical input during the intervention development process and should be recognized as viable and meaningful collaborators in all phases of intervention research.