The STIRR intervention
The STIRR (screen, test, immunize, reduce risk, and refer) intervention blends public health and clinical aspects (
25) to bring a small group of expert providers to a clinical site, for a limited period, to provide core services to an undertreated, at-risk population. The STIRR intervention involves three basic components: implementation support, on-site services, and treatment referral and support. These components are specified in an implementation manual that is available from the first author.
The STIRR intervention is delivered by a small team of trained specialists, including an implementation support specialist, an infectious disease coordinator (a nurse or a physician assistant), an internist with expertise in diagnosis and treatment of HIV and hepatitis, a psychiatrist with expertise in dual disorders, and an administrative support person. In the two pilot applications reported here, all team members were on the faculty of Dartmouth Medical School. Most contact with clients and staff is made by the nurse or coordinator (about one hour per client) and by the administrative support person. The implementation support expert spends ten to 12 hours at each site, and the internist and the psychiatrist communicate on-site and by telephone for between five and ten hours per site.
Before staff members meet with clients, materials and space are arranged to support the infectious disease clinic, including materials for processing blood samples as well as refrigerated storage for the Twinrix vaccine. In addition, the STIRR team establishes specific referral mechanisms with local medical providers for clients who need further assessment and treatment.
Implementation support. On the basis of Green's model (
26) as elaborated by Dieterich and associates (
27,
28), the STIRR intervention uses proven methods of practice change. These methods include principles from educational psychology and academic detailing and are used to first negotiate service system support and then to educate and motivate mental health treatment teams to accept and support an infectious disease initiative (
29,
30,
31). Implementation support procedures for STIRR include administrative system interventions, provider education, use of concise materials, repetition of essential messages, social influence, performance feedback, and targeting of specific opinion leaders.
Implementation begins with a meeting to educate and motivate the organization's management to support the infectious disease intervention. At this meeting, the epidemiology of infectious diseases among persons with severe mental illness is reviewed, and the STIRR model, including projected requirements of providers and benefits for participants, are presented. The STIRR team next attends scheduled treatment team meetings to introduce the same material and secure cooperation in implementing the STIRR intervention. Before the STIRR services are actually introduced, an implementation expert meets with providers to determine how best to facilitate and adapt the services at the particular site. Focus groups at each setting assess reactions and concerns, particularly concerns about implementation barriers at the client, treatment team, and organizational levels.
Once barriers are understood and entrée is negotiated, brief on-site training is offered to the treatment team to supplement its knowledge about HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C and to familiarize treatment team members with the STIRR team and procedures. The treatment team is provided with informational materials to educate, persuade, and reinforce provider support for the STIRR intervention, including reminders such as posters about hepatitis C and sticky notes to flag clients' charts. Members of the treatment team are not asked to provide STIRR services except to support participation in medical care for clients who have tested positive for infection.
On-site services. The STIRR nurse, who is a member of the treatment team, offers screening, diagnostic testing, and prevention services to clients who are receiving community support services at the site of usual care. Three individual meetings are held with eligible clients for risk assessment, counseling, blood testing, and immunization.
The first individual session provides client education, personalized risk assessment, pretest counseling, blood draw, and first immunization with hepatitis A inactivated and hepatitis B (recombinant) vaccine. Screening for risk is accomplished by giving each client an educational brochure and reviewing a list of personal risk factors. Items listed include high-risk behaviors that are commonly reported by clients with severe mental illness, including needle or drug sharing, receipt of a blood transfusion before 1992, and risky sexual practices.
After assessing personal risk factors, the STIRR nurse offers clients individual pretest counseling and a blood test for HIV, hepatitis B, or hepatitis C. Blood is drawn on-site and is then either spun by centrifuge for storage or refrigerated and then shipped to the laboratory for testing.
After counseling and blood draw, each client is offered immunization with hepatitis A inactivated and hepatitis B (recombinant) vaccine. Alternatively, sites could use monovalent hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccines. However, this approach would require a series of five rather than three injections. Because the STIRR strategy is to minimize clients' burden and barriers to participation, we used Twinrix, a sterile, bivalent vaccine used for primary immunization for adults. Injections were given at zero, one, and six months. The vaccine provides comparable protection to monovalent hepatitis A and hepatitis B vaccines. Although the optimal series includes three injections, a majority of benefit is attained after completion of the first two injections. Twinrix has proved to be well tolerated and safe and has the advantage of protecting against both hepatitis A and hepatitis B with one vaccine.
After the immunization, the STIRR nurse once again reviews the client's personal risk factors and provides basic information about how to avoid getting or spreading hepatitis and HIV. Major topics include the dangers of intravenous drug use; risks associated with sharing needles, razors, toothbrushes, or nail clippers; the need for sterilization of drug paraphernalia; and reduction of sexual risk. Finally, clients are encouraged to make a list of "what you want to do to avoid getting or spreading the virus" and to discuss that list with their physician or case manager. To reinforce these messages, clients are also given a new toothbrush, a disposable razor, condoms, and several refrigerator magnets to serve as reminders.
A second session is scheduled approximately one month after the first. In this session the STIRR nurse provides clients with test results, posttest and risk reduction counseling, medical referral and linkage (if needed), and the second Twinrix immunization.
At the third and final scheduled session, the nurse again assesses risk level and reinforces risk reduction. The nurse provides the final immunization and, if relevant, monitors progress on medical treatment and linkage as well as primary and secondary prevention plans.
Treatment referral and support. Referral for further medical evaluation and treatment linkage for infectious diseases does require the mental health treatment team to be involved in collaboration with the STIRR team. Although it is important to educate the mental health treatment team in basic aspects of managing blood-borne diseases, the mental health team is likely to play only a supportive or facilitative role in medical evaluation and possible treatment for persons who test positive for at least one infection.
Because mental health providers may have minimal contact with other medical specialists, the STIRR team establishes referral resources with local infectious disease providers and gastroenterologists. The team also provides consultation to clients and to mental health providers about the complex medical decisions that infected clients must make as well as consultation about linkage to psychiatric support and monitoring during medical treatments.