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Despite a growing population of youth living with HIV, few interventions have been developed to address their unique mental health needs and to promote resilience. Based on our prior needs assessment, a mental health intervention, Sauti ya Vijana ( The Voice of Youth), was developed to address identified mental health needs and promote resilience. The intervention emphasized resilience strategies for identifying and coping with stressful events, supporting strong familial and social relationships, and planning for a safe and healthy living environment through stigma reduction, planning for disclosure, and instilling hope for the future. Ten group sessions (two of which were joint youth/caregiver sessions) and two individual sessions were developed around these three resilience domains. Youth living with HIV (average age 17.4 years), who were receiving antiretroviral therapy and attending HIV adolescent clinic in Tanzania were randomized to intervention or treatment as usual. Trained group leaders led the intervention sessions. Near perfect program fidelity by the group leaders and unanimous acceptance of the intervention by the youth was documented. SYV successfully promoted youth resilience as measured by youth-reported utilization of new coping skills, improved peer and caregiver relationships, reduced stigma, and improved confidence to live positively according to their personal values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Children in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) are the least touched by recent successes in the diagnosis and treatment of HIV/AIDS globally. Early treatment is essential for a child's longer and higher quality of life; however, by 2011, only a small proportion of HIV-seropositive children in LMIC countries were receiving treatment, in part because of persisting low rates of diagnosis. This study of the prevalence and characteristics of children tested for HIV was embedded in the Coping with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania (CHAT) study in which HIV-seropositive and HIV-seronegative adults, and adults with unknown HIV status were asked about HIV testing for their children. Data were gathered from November 2009 to August 2010 during the scale-up of Prevention of Mother To Child Transmission and Early Infant Diagnosis programs in the region. Reports on 1776 children indicate that 31.7% of all children were reported to have been tested, including only 42.9% of children with an HIV-seropositive caregiver. In general, children more likely to be HIV tested were biological children of study participants, younger, of widowed adults, living in urban areas, and of HIV-seropositive parents/caregivers. Children belonging to the two indigenous tribes, Chagga and Pare, were more likely to be tested than those from other tribes. Rates of testing among children less than two years old were low, even for the HIV-seropositive caregiver group. The persistence of low testing rates is discussed in terms of the accessibility and acceptability of child testing in resource poor settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]