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Tina Hoff (left), vice president of Entertainment Media Partnerships at the Kaiser Family Foundat

Experts in the field of HIV research say it is no longer enough now to inform young people about HIV and AIDS. They must change their behavior, and go from simply learning to acting on what they learn.

With the growing threat of HIV and AIDS for young people, the UCLA Center for HIV Identification, Prevention, and Treatment Services brought together several experts and professionals from across the country to a policy forum, titled “HIV Among Young People: Reaching the ‘Not Me’ Generation,” on July 29.

The “Not Me” generation includes individuals ranging from age 13 to 24 who are less informed about the threat of HIV and AIDS, and do not take proper actions to protect themselves and others from infection, something past generations have taken more seriously, said Gabriel Stover, director of Project LIGHT at the UCLA Center for Community Health.

Project LIGHT is a research project that conducts HIV intervention and prevention with young people.

This is the ninth annual policy forum held by CHIPTS, but the first dealing with youth and HIV, said Mark Etzel, executive director of CHIPTS and director of policy at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute.

Half of new cases of HIV infections are in young people, said Mary Jane Rotheram, director of CHIPTS and director of the UCLA Center of Community Health.

CHIPTS is an organization that works with Charles Drew University, Rand Corporation, Friends Research Institute and the Los Angeles community in order to promote research and education on HIV detection, prevention and treatment.

“From our policy forums over the last nine years we’ve had new partnerships that have been forged,” Etzel said. “Each year we pick a topic of interest in the area of HIV prevention, and try to convene a collection of stakeholders.”

Etzel said dialogue around the issues concerning HIV and AIDS has been essential, and CHIPTS has had a strong impact on that dialogue. From last year’s forum, which dealt with rapid testing for HIV, a monograph was developed that was used by California to rethink several counseling and testing guidelines, he said.

Understanding the behavioral implications of HIV has been the focus of this forum, Etzel said.

The event held two panel discussions, where presentations were made about new techniques being used to help youth understand the consequences of HIV and AIDS. There were also presentations that discussed the positive effects of the arts and employment on “at-greatest-risk” youth.

Several individuals at the event addressed the concern of changing the mentality of the “Not Me” generation.

“The message (of HIV prevention) hasn’t reached them in the same way that it did like their predecessors,” Stover said.

Stover said that information and education, while essential, only does so much to provide protection to the “Not Me” generation.

“This (forum) is all about how to effect real behavior change beyond just providing education,” Stover said.

Several of the panelists brought forth information dealing with current efforts to offer services and information that youth can use to protect themselves from infection.

Tina Hoff, a representative from the Kaiser Family Foundation, showed public service announcements and media campaigns developed in cooperation with MTV, BET, Univision and Viacom networks, and said these pieces have shown positive response in providing youth with information about HIV and AIDS.

Hannah Brueckner, from the department of sociology at Yale University, discussed the effect of “virginity pledges” by young people, government-backed abstinence training, and the behavior of those pledgers. She said her research found that youth who take a pledge of virginity until marriage are not less likely to contract sexually transmitted diseases, and are more likely not to use condoms or contraceptives in order to prevent pregnancy or transmission of diseases.

The presenters represent some of the brightest and best ideas going on nationally in the field of HIV and AIDS research, Rotheram said.

“(We) try to be the glue that holds together and facilitates research,” Etzel said.

The event is also an effort by CHIPTS to offer public providers, government officials and public health departments the research compiled by the researchers and experts, Rotheram said.

At the moment, CHIPTS is competing for five more years of funding, Etzel said.

Earlier this year, UCLA announced the formation of the Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Medicine, which will contribute to HIV research efforts as well as other areas of stem cell research.

Rotheram said that HIV research and prevention is a huge ongoing commitment by UCLA.