May 2008 — In order to address staff shortages and improve adherence counseling for people on antiretroviral therapy, the Zambia Prevention, Care and Treatment Partnership developed an innovative strategy of training community volunteers to provide adherence support at the health facility and community levels. The objective of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the volunteers in adherence counseling, treatment retention and supplementary human resources at health facilities. The study concluded that adherence counseling tasks can be shifted to community volunteers without compromising the quality of counseling. Follow-up of clients by adherence support workers within the community is necessary to improve retention of clients on antiretroviral therapy. For more on the study, see http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0002204.

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