Share Safer Sex Counseling Program for Changing Sexual Risk Behaviors in Mexican Female Sex Workers

The Share Safer Sex intervention will consist of a single, 30 to 40 minute, one-on-one counseling session designed to increase personal awareness of the participant's current unsafe behaviors and the associated risks, help her understand her motivation to change, and increase her knowledge about how to practice safe sex. Demonstrations and practice exercises will be used to improve participants' attitudes about, as well as intentions to practice, condom use. The counseling session will include the following activities: assessing readiness for change; building motivation for change; and performing exercises in decisional balance, identification of problem and problem-solving, and knowledge and skill-building.

The standard counseling program will be based on a sexual risk reduction counseling program developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and will focus on personal risk assessment and strategies for risk reduction. Additionally, it will incorporate risk reduction materials provided by CENSIDA, Mexico's National Center for AIDS Studies.