A STD Partner Services: Initial Interview Overview
Initial STD Partner Services interviews are conducted in a safe and confidential setting by highly-trained disease inte rvention specialists (DIS). The following overview is meant to give the referring clinician an idea of the information gathered during this first encounter.
Patient Assessment
The interviewer maintains active, two-way client-centered communications throughout the interview, being sure to communicate at the patient's level of understanding.
Patient Concerns
The interviewer identifies and addresses the patient's concerns, determines the reason for the exam, and clarifies the patient's concerns or misconceptions about the diagnosis.
Medical History and Disease Comprehension
The interviewer ensures that each patient is informed about the specific STD at issue (asymptomatic nature of the disease, risk of re-infection, modes of transmission, course of disease, symptoms, sites of possible exposure, seriousness of disease, and risk reduction). He or she also uses visual aids to gather information on signs and symptoms of the original patient and to ask about other persons with symptoms, as well as gathering information about STD history and previous testing and treatment.
Disease Intervention
Assuring Examination of Partners and Persons at High Risk for STDs
After eliciting the names of partners and other persons at high risk (especially if pregnant), the interviewer pursues detailed identifying and descriptive information, making certain to get complete sexual exposure data along with the nature of any symptoms, wheappropriate.
Negotiating a risk reduction plan
STD prevention counseling should be incorporated into interviews. Prevention counseling with patients who are sexually active is likely to be more effective when the counseling skills and strategies are shaped to fit the individual's needs.
To ensure that STD prevention counseling is client-centered, the interview should be based on appropriate CDC standards for prevention counseling, a discussion of risk-reduction or harm-reduction strategies that the patient will be able to attempt, and specifi strategies to help the patient with making these changes.
Reference: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Program Operations Guidelines for STD Prevention: Partner Services. Accessed from the web 8 Nov 2006: http://www.cdc.gov/std/program/partner/TOC-PGpartner.htm