Table 1.

Interview guide and key probes

Experiences with HIV and HIV care
HIV history	To start, would you mind talking with me a little bit about your experience with HIV? When did you receive your diagnosis? (Probe: When were you told by a health care provider that you had HIV?)
HIV current status	What is your understanding of your HIV status currently? (Probe: How well is your HIV being managed medically?) How do you cope with and manage your symptoms?
HIV management for future	When you think about the future, how do you imagine you will be managing your HIV? What do you see as the main challenges for managing your HIV symptoms in the future?
Understanding pain experience and treatment
Description of pain and interference	Could you tell me a little bit about the sort of chronic pain you have had? What is it like? When does it get better? What makes it worse? How does the pain interfere with your life? How would your life be different if your pain was reduced or better managed?
Pain treatment and coping	What do you do to cope with or manage your pain? (Probe: How do you get through the bad times with your pain?) Are you taking any medications for your pain? Is there anything else that you are currently doing to help deal with your pain? (Probe: How does that work for you?)
Social support	Do other people in your life know about your pain? Have they helped you cope or made it more difficult? (Probe: In what way?)
Alcohol and substance use
Patterns of use and contexts	I would like to get a sense from you about how alcohol fits in with your life. When do you drink? How many days per week? How much do you typically drink? What are the main reasons why you drink? (Probe: If you think back over the last week, what things happened or what were you feeling just before you picked up a drink?)
Drinking and pain	How, if it all, is your drinking related to your pain? (Probe: Do you use alcohol to help your pain? How so?)
Alcohol and medication	How is drinking related to your use of medications: HIV meds, pain meds, other medications? (Probe: Do you tend to drink with medications? What about forgetting to take them?)
Alcohol-related consequences	Are there any negative effects of drinking for you? [Probe: Any not so good things, like effects on either your health in general or HIV?)
Experiences with treatment
Treatment for pain	Have you talked to your doctor about your pain? What have they recommended for you? Have you faced any difficulties getting treatment for your pain? (Probe: If so, what have they been?) Have you ever had anyone talk to you about ways to manage your pain? (Probe: If so, can you tell me about it?) If yes: What did you like and what did you dislike about counseling to help you manage pain? If no: What do you think about having someone to talk to you about things you could do in addition to medication to help you or deal with your pain?
Treatment for alcohol use or other substances	Have you ever had treatment/counseling for drinking? (Probe: Can you tell me about it?) What did you like and what did you dislike about this kind of treatment/counseling? (Probe: What did you get out of your treatment/counseling?) Have you ever had treatment or any help for drug use? What about your treatment for alcohol or substances has been most helpful? (Probe: How were you able to use it to improve your health?)
Technology use and access
Smartphone access	Do you have a smartphone: a phone that has access to the internet? What kind of phone is it? Do you have a data plan that you use? Do you have unlimited data? For what activities do you usually use your phone?
Internet access	Do you have access to the internet? If yes: How often do you use the internet? Can you use it in a private space? (Probe: Can you be alone when you use it?) If no: Where could you get access to the internet if you wanted to? How difficult/easy would it be to access the internet in this way?
Overview of the program and modalities
Smartphone and videoconferencing	What do you think of using the video/phone approach to deliver an intervention? What do you see as the main advantages and disadvantages of doing an intervention for your pain and alcohol use by phone or video in this way?
Duration	What do you see as a reasonable number of sessions for working with a counselor on ways to better manage your pain and alcohol use? What do you see as a reasonable amount of time for a session with a counselor to talk about your pain and alcohol use?
Ways to improve	Are there any other ideas that you have about how we could make the intervention better: more useful to you, more interesting for you, more likely that you would want to use it? (Probe: This could mean the content, ways of delivering it, other uses of technology [e.g., text messaging, web]) If you were designing a way to help other people living with HIV who had pain and consumed alcohol, what sorts of things would you want to do?