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Learning Objective:
By the end of the presentation participants will be able to:
1. Understand how an ASO integrated hepatitis risk assessment, education, and advocacy into five existing programs.
2. Identify the opportunities and challenges of integrating hepatitis into a range of HIV programming.
Background:
Recognizing that HIV and hepatitis share similarities in affected populations, transmission routes, and negative health outcomes and that many clients were concerned about hepatitis, the AIDS Action Committee identified five existing programs that could have an impact on hepatitis.
Setting:
Urban AIDS Service Organization.
Population e.g. API Youth, MSM, IDU:
HIV-positive and -negative individuals who receive HIV prevention and education or case management services and are infected with or at risk for hepatitis including IDUs, sexual partners of IDUs, MSM, and HRHs.
Project Description:
Each of five programs began integrating hepatitis into its existing work in the following ways:
1. The statewide HIV Hotline added a hepatitis-specific hotline number, making use of existing infrastructure, staff, and volunteers.
2. The statewide HIV Health Library extended its capacity to provide a wide range of hepatitis and coinfection information.
3. The Peer Action Program, a harm-reduction-based prevention counseling program, began integrating hepatitis into risk assessment, risk reduction counseling, and referral sessions.
4. The Public Policy Program added hepatitis issues to existing advocacy efforts, including sterile syringe and health care access.
5. The Case Management Program began identifying, educating, supporting, and referring coinfected clients.
Results/Lessons Learned:
There are opportunities to integrate hepatitis prevention and education into existing HIV programming without additional resources. For example, simultaneously conducting HIV and hepatitis risk assessment, risk reduction counseling, and referrals is natural. There are also challenges, including limitations on the range of services to which clients can be referred due to the lack of funding and the lack of access to harm reduction tools.
Web Page: www.aac.org
See more of H3 - Integration into HIV Programs: The Role of AIDS Directors and AIDS Service Organizations
See more of The 2005 National Viral Hepatitis Prevention Conference