HIV ANTIBODY TESTING AND CLIENT RETENTION IN THE THERAPEUTIC-COMMUNITY - A PRELIMINARY-REPORT OF PHOENIX-HOUSE

This report describes the current approach to testing for the human im munodeficiency virus (HIV) antibody at Phoenix House, a large therapeu tic community (TC) in the northeastern United States, and presents fin dings on retention of clients who have been tested for HIV antibodies and notified of their HIV serostatus. A total of 240 clients were test ed while in treatment at Phoenix House between April 1988 and July 199 2. Of these, 51 tested HIV positive. An additional 76 clients had test ed positive for HIV antibodies prior to entering treatment. The differ ence in length of treatment stay between those who tested negative whi le in treatment and those who tested positive while at Phoenix House w as not significant (t = 0.41, df = 238, p > .683). Although clients wh o tested seronegative during treatment were found to remain in treatme nt a significantly longer amount of time than the total population of seropositive clients (t = 4.54, df = 314, p < .001), those who learned of their seropositive status while in treatment remained in the progr am longer than clients who entered treatment aware of their seropositi vity (t = 4.08, df = 125, p < .001). These findings suggest that acute reactions of the knowledge of seropositivity did not determine most p remature terminations. The use of a small group, a core technical elem ent of the TC, may have provided a favorable context for the task of H IV counseling and testing.