Intervention
The intervention was a multi‐session brief alcohol counselling intervention based on the Information, Motivation, and Behavioral skills (IMB) model [The intervention included two in‐person counselling sessions, performed at baseline and week 12, with brief “booster” phone‐based counselling session performed every 3 weeks between in‐person sessions. The in‐person sessions were workbook‐guided and designed to reflect on the consequences of alcohol use on one's health and HIV treatment, identify risky moods and situations that precede alcohol use, build skills for alternative behaviours and set individualized goals to decrease alcohol intake. Booster calls were tailored to participants’ goals and designed to check progress and provide positive reinforcement and encouragement as appropriate. Intervention participants received viral load and adherence counselling based on results from the baseline study visit by study staff at the 3‐week phone call and by clinic staff at their post‐baseline regular clinic visit.Counselling was conducted by lay counsellors trained by a licensed clinical psychologist (SWK) on the basic Motivational Interviewing skills and implementation of the manualized intervention. SWK provided ongoing group supervision for the counsellors.