Thais Costa
Risk Assessment Tool
Aidsfonds partnered with Butterfly Works to develop a comprehensive risk assessment tool aimed at identifying the specific needs of young people living with HIV and the interventions they find most beneficial. This project was carried out in collaboration with the Coalition of Women Living with HIV (COWLHA), who highlighted a growing concern: an increasing number of individuals were not adhering to their treatment plans, resulting in elevated health risks.
The partnership aimed not only to address the immediate health concerns but also to understand the barriers to treatment adherence, ensuring that the tool could offer tailored support and actionable interventions that directly responded to the needs of this vulnerable group.
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My Role:
I led the development and user testing of a risk assessment app designed to help community workers and experts understand why young people living with HIV were not adhering to their antiretroviral therapy (ART) treatment. The app provided support and recommendations for interventions tailored to the youth's specific needs. I collaborated with a dedicated team of partners in Malawi and worked closely with our software development partner, Tunga, based in Uganda.
Company/ partners
Output
A risk assessment tool for health workers of COWLHA to use in the support of young people living with HIV
Location
Malawi
Date
2019 - 2020
The design challenge
We conducted design research to understand the context in Malawi, the risk factors contributing to ART treatment non-adherence, and to explore both proven and innovative intervention approaches for young people living with HIV. In this process, we closely collaborated with Aidsfonds to build on the organization's existing knowledge.
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Our design challenge was:
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How might we develop a tool to help health workers encourage youth in Malawi to adhere to their HIV treatment?
The project began with an exploration of intervention strategies, followed by a research workshop with youth, project partners, and health workers in Malawi. During the workshop, we identified key themes that shed light on why young people living with HIV were not adhering to their ART treatment. The main factors identified included discrimination, nutrition, side effects, and depression, among others.
The outcome
Next, we facilitated a concept development and prototyping workshop to deepen our understanding of the lived experiences of people living with HIV (PLHIV) and to begin developing prototypes for the formats and content of our risk assessment tool.
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We translated these insights into a user-friendly application, Thandizo! Community, designed for use by COWLHA health workers with tablets. "Thandizo," meaning "support" in the local language Chichewa, was created as a comprehensive tool to assist health workers in the field. The app was available in both English and Chichewa and could be used online and offline. It featured quizzes for evaluation and self-assessment, video stories from inspirational figures promoting healthy practices, and a directory of local health centers. The visual design and animations were created in collaboration with local Malawian artists, ensuring the app was culturally relevant and engaging.
