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The ‘Armistead’ project: an exploration of gay men, sexual practices, community health promotion and issues of empowerment
Author(s) -
Crossley Michele L.
Publication year - 2001
Publication title -
journal of community and applied social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.042
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1099-1298
pISSN - 1052-9284
DOI - 10.1002/casp.618
Subject(s) - empowerment , health promotion , government (linguistics) , promotion (chess) , public relations , health education , psychological intervention , sociology , focus group , reproductive health , political science , psychology , nursing , public health , medicine , population , politics , linguistics , philosophy , anthropology , law , demography
Recently emerging evidence indicates that some gay men / men who have sex with men (MWHSWM) are continuing to engage in unsafe sexual practices despite over a decade of health education/promotion. Accordingly, there have been recent attempts to ‘revamp’ health education/ promotion programmes as a means of encouraging participation. One way of doing this has been through government facilitation of ‘community’ based health promotion programmes. These programmes attempt to regenerate social networks and supportive environments and to thereby empower gay men / MWHSWM. This paper explores some of the issues involved in this process in relation to an independent evaluation of a government funded community based health promotion project set up in the north‐west of England. Drawing on interviews and focus groups with clients and agencies involved with the project, it explores some of the connections and conflicts between empowerment, safer sex and government funded health promotion interventions. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.