Shernoff was an early volunteer for Gay Men's Health Crisis and became one of the first social workers in the United States to address AIDS in a private psychotherapy practice. He wrote many articles and offered training for both mental health professionals and patients on dealing with mental health aspects of gay sexuality and living with HIV and AIDS. In 1985 he and Luis Palacios-Jiménez created the workshop "Hot, Horny and Healthy: Eroticizing Gay Sex" for a Gay Men’s Health Crisis conference. The workshop, intended to teach gay men how to continue to engage in sexual activity without risking HIV transmission, was eventually presented in cities across North America. A pamphlet that he co-authored, When a Friend Has AIDS, was translated into eight languages. Shernoff produced, following the AIDS death of a partner, an anthology entitled Gay Widowers: Life after the Death of a Partner that ten years later was described as still being the only book to address the specific challenges of grief for gay men having lost their partners.
Books
Michael Shernoff and William Scott, editors, The Sourcebook on Lesbian/Gay Health Care, published by The National Lesbian/Gay Health Foundation, Washington, D.C., 1988, 425 pages,
Michael Shernoff, editor, Counseling Chemically Dependent People With HIV Illness, published by Harrington Park Press, Binghamton, N.Y., 1992,
Walt Odets and Michael Shernoff, editors, Second Decade of Aids: A Mental Health Practice Handbook, Hatherleigh Press, 1995, 320 pages,
Michael Shernoff, editor, Human Services for Gay People, Taylor & Francis, Inc., 1996, 138 pages,
Michael Shernoff, editor, Gay Widowers: Life after the Death of a Partner, Haworth Press, 1997, 161 pages,
Michael Shernoff, editor, AIDS and Mental Health Practice: Clinical and Policy Issues, Taylor & Francis, Inc., 1999, 381 pages,
Michael Shernoff and Raymond Smith, HIV Treatment: Mental Health Aspects of Antiviral Therapy, published by University of California San Francisco AIDS Health Project, 2000,
Michael Shernoff, Without Condoms: Unprotected Sex, Gay Men and Barebacking, published by Routledge, 2005, 371 pages,
Articles
Stephan L. Buckingham and Michael Shernoff, , In: A Mental Health Practitioner's Guide to the Neuropsychiatric Complications of HIV/AIDS, Guilford Publications; W. Van Gorp & S. Buckingham, 1998
Michael Shernoff, , in A Perilous Calling: The Hazards of Psychotherapy Practice, M. Sussman, Editor, 1994: John Wiley & Sons
Michael Shernoff, , In The Family magazine, July 1996
Michael Shernoff, , In: HIV and Social Work: A Practitioner's Guide, David M. Aronstein and Bruce J. Thompson, Editors, 1998, The Haworth Press, Binghamton, N.Y.
Michael Shernoff, , Family Therapy Networker, March/April 1999
Michael Shernoff, , 5 Boroughs AIDS Mental Health Alliance, V. 5, No 3, Fall 2003
Michael Shernoff, , Social Work Today, V.3, No 17, December 2003
Michael Shernoff, Dial-Up Gay Culture: What We Lose and What We Gain in the New Queer Zeitgeist, In the family magazine, V.10, No 4, April 2005
