Retaining in Care

Engagement in HIV/AIDS care falls along a continuum, from not being in care at all to being fully engaged, with interim points that reflect inconsistent and non-engagement in care. Varied interventions can enhance care engagement, including peer support, motivational interviewing, and case management. HRSA HAB through the SPNS program and other initiatives identify and evaluate innovative retention approaches, and produce replication materials for those showing the most promise. Many of these interventions focus on populations at most need, including youth, transgender women, and women and MSM of color.

Resources 78

Best Practices

  • Dissemination of Evidence Informed-Interventions Project (DEII)

    Evidence-informed HIV care interventions (jail transitional care, buprenorphine, patient navigation, peer support for women of color).

  • IHIP
    Components of an intervention focused on BMSM with HIV who have not yet been successfully maintained in care.
  • IHIP
    Intervention using three interconnected approaches to improve retention in HIV care: housing first, harm reduction, and Motivational Interviewing.
  • IHIP
    Mobile app for youth offering information, social networking, and self-management tools to support holistic HIV care.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    +LOVE is an integrated case management intervention with behavioral health and crisis support to enhance and improve HIV care and outcomes for Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. An evaluation of +LOVE showed improvements in retention in care.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    To better integrate primary care with behavioral health services, providers were trained on trauma-informed care and contracts and standards of care were modified to require that medical providers conduct mental health screenings. As a result, receipt of mental health services and care retention rates improved.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Hispanic and Latino clients served by the team received culturally responsive care and linkages to external community resources, with resulting greater retention in care and improved viral suppression rates.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The Bottom-Up Project is a multi-organizational initiative focused on leveraging health information exchange data and peer navigation. Using real-time clinical data, in combination with linkage to HIV care and social services, the Bottom-Up Project locates and reengages people with HIV who are not currently in medical care and are not virally suppressed. Through this collaboration, over half of patients on the lost-to-follow-up list were found and invited to enroll in the linkage to care/reengagement program.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    2BU is a case management intervention designed to engage and reengage Black men who have sex with men with HIV into HIV care services. Peer case managers work closely with clients to increase HIV health literacy, troubleshoot accessibility issues to HIV care, and connect clients directly to behavioral health and support services. Clients who participated in 2BU had increased retention in care and viral suppression 12 months after enrollment.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Buprenorphine Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder in HIV Primary Care is an integrated care approach designed to reduce opioid use and overdose while improving client engagement in HIV care. Greater Lawrence Family Health Center and Med Centro, Inc. implemented this integrated care approach as part of E2i, an initiative funded by the RWHAP Part F SPNS program from 2017–2021. Clients who participated in this intervention received integrated care—treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) and HIV in a single setting—to improve retention in care, viral suppression, and engagement in OUD treatment.
  • Center for Innovation and Engagement
    The Clinic-Based Surveillance-Informed (CBSI) intervention combines clinic and health department surveillance data to identify people with HIV who are out of care and re-engage and retain them in HIV care.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Clínica Bienestar (Spanish for “Wellness Clinic”) was developed to provide comprehensive, integrated HIV primary care services to Spanish-speaking and bilingual people of Puerto Rican ancestry, with HIV who inject drugs. Clínica Bienestar is a multilevel, multipronged intervention combining evidence-based practices in behavioral health and HIV medical care with a transnational approach to care. Clínica Bienestar positively impacted retention in HIV medical care and viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    This medical-community partnership worked to link clients to care and decrease missed appointments and used peer navigators to successfully re-engage clients in care.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) is an evidence-based, cognitive behavioral treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. Through individual or group sessions of CPT, clients learn to recognize and challenge unhelpful thoughts and beliefs related to trauma. Positive Impact Health Centers and Western North Carolina Community Health Services implemented CPT as part of E2i, an initiative funded by the RWHAP Part F SPNS program from 2017 to 2021. While not statistically significant, CPT participants had increased engagement in care and retention in care from enrollment to 12 months.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Collaborative Care Management (CoCM) integrates mental health and primary care, with a care team of a primary care provider, behavioral health care manager, and psychiatric consultant. Together they provide comprehensive and coordinated care to people with HIV who have co-occurring depression or other psychiatric disorders. Four sites implemented CoCM as part of E2i, an initiative funded by the RWHAP Part F SPNS program from 2017–2021. CoCM led to statistically significant increases in antiretroviral therapy (ART) prescription and viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Ten organizations across the U.S. integrated Community Health Workers (CHWs) into their multidisciplinary care teams. Enrolled clients had statistically significant improvements in viral suppression, antiretroviral therapy prescription, and appointment attendance after six months in the program.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    CoRECT was a data to care project to identify and re-engage people with HIV who were newly out of care. It included a clinic and health department data reconciliation process to identify missed laboratory results or appointments and create the out-of-care list, case discussions via telephone to review the combined list, and field epidemiologist outreach to assist clients with making appointments, securing transportation, and arranging referrals. The intervention employed strengths-based case management techniques and motivational interviewing to contact identified people within 30 days, reengage them in care, and reduce time to viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Lehigh Valley Health Network Comprehensive Health Services implemented a trauma-informed approach to care delivery, including training staff on how trauma can affect people’s health and how microaggressions in healthcare environments can potentially trigger trauma responses. This approach positively impacted care delivery and the program’s retention in care rate.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    E-VOLUTION is a two-way text messaging intervention, originally developed by Washington University School of Medicine and piloted at Project ARK. The intervention focuses on improving health outcomes for youth, particularly young Black men who have sex with men. E-VOLUTION was designed for people ages 18-29 who have HIV and are receiving clinical care but require support to remain adherent. E-VOLUTION was evaluated and found to improve viral suppression and retention in care rates.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The Enhanced Patient Navigation for Women of Color with HIV intervention uses patient navigators, who are non-medical staff in clinical settings, to reduce barriers to health care and optimize care. The intervention was effective in improving linkage to and retention in care, as well as viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Enlaces Por La Salud is an HIV linkage, navigation, and education program for Mexican men and transgender women. The intervention is grounded in a transnational framework for providing cultural context to support the delivery of one-on-one educational sessions to Latina(o/x) people with a new HIV diagnosis, as well as people with HIV who are not yet retained in care. After 12 months, the majority of people participating in Enlaces Por La Salud were retained in care and reached viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    ERASE was developed to address the unique needs of Black MSM. Through an intensive case management intervention, peer case managers provide health education and wellness support, and connect clients to medical and behavioral healthcare. ERASE also offers a physical “safe space” for Black MSM to meet with a case manager, access medical services, or connect with peers. Enrollment in ERASE improved retention in HIV care for clients.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Healthy Divas focuses on empowering transgender women with HIV to achieve their personal health goals. Three sites implemented the intervention as part of the E2i initiative funded through the RWHAP Part F SPNS program from 2017 through 2021. Both engagement in HIV care and having an antiretroviral therapy prescription improved significantly for clients 12 months after enrollment in Healthy Divas.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    HHOME offers mobile HIV primary care, behavioral health care, and connection to housing services to people with HIV experiencing homelessness. A centralized HHOME team acts as a hub to meet clients where they are, refer them to housing and support services, and provide ongoing case management and HIV primary care services. Clients participating in HHOME experienced increased retention in care, viral suppression, and connection to stable housing.
  • Best Practices Compilation

    Caracole, an AIDS Service Organization, uses three interconnected approaches to improve retention in HIV care: housing first, harm reduction, and motivational interviewing. Clients in permanent supportive housing had high rates of viral suppression, exceeding Caracole's goal of 75%.

  • Best Practices Compilation
    The Huntridge Family Clinic launched the Rapid Start Initiative to provide same-day ART treatment and comprehensive case management to clients with a new diagnosis of HIV. Over 90% of clients received ART on the same day as diagnosis, and 78% of clients were retained in care within the first year of starting treatment.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The AIDS Institute is committed to promoting, monitoring, and supporting the quality of clinical services for people with HIV in New York State. The Adolescent Quality Learning Network (AQLN) is a collaborative of 16 HIV Adolescent/Young Adult Specialized Care Center (SCC) programs. In collaboration with the AIDS Institute, SCC providers selected a quality improvement project aimed to raise viral suppression rates by improving access to mental health services.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Three participating clinics—MetroHealth, the University of Kentucky Bluegrass Care Clinic, and Centro Ararat—participated in a RWHAP Part F SPNS initiative from 2016 through 2019 to implement integrated buprenorphine treatment and HIV care. Research has shown that care integration improves HIV outcomes, engagement in substance use disorder treatment, and quality of life for people with HIV. Clients participating in this intervention received integrated opioid use disorder (OUD) and HIV care to improve retention in care, viral suppression, and engagement in OUD treatment.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    By integrating comprehensive HIV medical care with addiction services and medication protocols for substance use disorder (SUD), clients with HIV and SUD saw improvements in retention in care and viral suppression.
  • Center for Innovation and Engagement
    The Leveraging Housing Opportunities to Promote Retention in Care for People with HIV program in New York City offers three types of housing-related supportive services.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    LINK LA is a 12-session, 24-week peer navigation intervention for people with HIV who are scheduled to be released from incarceration. LINK LA peer navigators focus on behavioral changes that promote medication adherence and retention in care, while providing social support and facilitating communication with medical providers. LINK LA showed improvements in linkage to and retention in HIV care and viral suppression among people with HIV re-entering the community after incarceration.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Link-Up Rx is a pharmacy-data-based Data to Care program implemented by the Detroit Health Department in partnership with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and a specialty pharmacy. Using pharmacy data to identify clients in need of follow-up greatly reduced the amount of time for clients to appear on “not in care” lists compared to traditional D2C approaches. Protocols for a three-tiered outreach and reengagement approach were developed to connect clients back to antiretroviral therapy and HIV care following a missed pharmacy pick-up. Nearly half of identified clients were linked back to their pharmacy or other HIV medical services.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    This data-to-care (D2C) initiative, implemented by the San Francisco Department of Public Health and its affiliated clinics from 2015–2017, used three sources of data to identify people not in care: HIV surveillance data, healthcare provider referrals, and electronic health record (EHR) data. LINCS navigators then used disease intervention searching tools and EHR data to locate clients and connect them to an HIV care provider. LINCS navigators followed up with clients for 90 days to support engagement in care. LINCS participants were more likely to be retained in care and virally suppressed after the intervention than before.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The RWHAP Part F SPNS program funded the Building a Medical Home for Multiply Diagnosed HIV-Positive Homeless Populations initiative from 2012–2017, to provide coordinated housing supports and HIV, behavioral and mental health care to people experiencing homelessness. Nine funded demonstration sites created partnerships with housing providers, integrated behavioral health and HIV care, and provided intensive patient navigator services. A multi-demonstration site evaluation found that, compared to baseline, participants were more likely to be virally suppressed after 12 months in the intervention.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    MORE focuses on people who are not virally suppressed and/or who have not attended an HIV medical appointment in six months. Participants can choose from one of three MORE programs, depending on the intensity of services they want. Based on initial evaluation findings, participants who received more intensive MORE services were more likely to be virally suppressed and less likely to be lost to follow-up than those who received less intensive services.
  • Center for Innovation and Engagement
    Patient navigation-enhanced case management intervention that improved linkage and retention in HIV care among people with HIV who were leaving jail to return to the community.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The Navigator Case Management intervention helps people with HIV who are incarcerated and are leaving to return to the community. The intervention uses harm reduction, case management, and motivational interviewing techniques to promote healthy behaviors. Enhanced case management including peer support and connection to other needed services both immediately before and after release supports increased linkage to and retention in HIV care for people transitioning to the community from jail.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The New York City HIV Care Coordination Program is a structural intervention that combines multiple strategies, including multidisciplinary care coordination, patient navigation, and personalized health education to address client medical and social needs. Multiple evaluations of the program consistently show improvements in viral suppression and engagement in care, especially for people with a new diagnosis of HIV or who are out of care.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Fenway Health, Fenway AIDS Action Committee, and MassHire Downtown Boston provided housing and employment supports to clients who were unstably housed and were un- or under-employed, in order to improve health outcomes as part of the RWHAP Part F SPNS initiative Improving HIV Health Outcomes through the Coordination of Supportive Employment and Housing Services. Almost 70 percent of clients who participated in this intervention and received medical care at Fenway Health were virally suppressed, despite facing considerable barriers to care.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Center for Care of Infectious Diseases, Pittsburgh Area Center for Treatment (PACT) began implementing the Food Assistance Program in August 2017 to serve as a supplemental resource for people with HIV receiving care who experience food insecurity. The program helps bridge gaps in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits and monthly food costs while promoting access to healthy foods and retention in HIV care.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The Patient-Centered HIV Care Model (PCHCM) integrates the services of community-based HIV specialized pharmacists and HIV medical providers to deliver patient-centered care for people with HIV. PCHCM expands upon the medication therapy management model by including information sharing between partnered pharmacy and clinic teams; collaborative medication-related action planning between pharmacists, medical providers, and patients; and quarterly follow-up pharmacy visits. Patients participating in the intervention had improved retention in care and viral suppression rates.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    One Stop Career Center of Puerto Rico (OSCC-PR) implemented Pay it Forward to increase workforce capacity to connect Puerto Ricans with HIV to community-based HIV care and social supports following release from jail. Pay it Forward included training of OSCC-PR staff in the Transitional Care Coordination model. Eighty percent of clients who were supported by Pay it Forward in Puerto Rico were still in HIV care 12 months after release.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    University Health uses peers and patient navigators to provide support, reduce barriers, and improve linkage and retention to care for women and youth with HIV. Two peers with lived experience were hired as Outreach Specialists to spearhead the program, encourage medication adherence and use of services, and provide mentoring. The intervention was successful in moderately improving the numbers of clients linked to care, retained in care, and virally suppressed.
  • Dissemination of Evidence Informed-Interventions Project (DEII)
    Peer linkage and re-engagement intervention, informed and adapted from the best practice findings of a past SPNS initiative.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    From 2016 through 2019, three clinics—AIDS Care Group, Howard Brown Health, and Meharry Medical College—participated in a RWHAP Part F SPNS DEII initiative to implement peer linkage and re-engagement interventions for women of color with HIV. Integrating peers into HIV primary care teams has been effective in better engaging women of color in care.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The Positive Peers app motivates youth and young adults with HIV to stay engaged in HIV care through self-management tools and virtual support. Although specific outcomes vary by age group, individuals who used the app were more likely to attend their medical appointments, receive labs, and reach viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    PositiveLinks is a mobile platform deployed by clinics or community-based organizations to connect people with HIV to a digital support community. The client-facing app helps people with a new diagnosis of HIV become engaged in care and helps people at risk of being lost to care overcome barriers related to geographic or social isolation. From the app, people can access Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA)-compliant patient dashboards, secure messaging, and patient lab records. People who used PositiveLinks had increased rates of retention in care and viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The PC4H initiative employs a mobile app and a digital literacy workshop to improve engagement, retention in care, and medication adherence for young people with HIV. These strategies aim to reach young people who are disproportionately affected by HIV, including young men who have sex with men, young transgender women, and youth of color, with a focus on serving people who know their status but are inconsistently engaged in care. Developed by Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Philadelphia FIGHT, PC4H was evaluated through the RWHAP Part F SPNS Social Media Initiative. The evaluation found that PC4H had positive impacts on retention in care and viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The University of Mississippi Medical Center implemented a Postpartum Retention and Engagement Quality Improvement Initiative in 2017 to improve linkage to care, retention in care, and viral suppression among postpartum women with HIV. This intervention uses a combination of care coordination, printed materials, case management services, and improved collaboration and coordination between the Adult Special Care Clinic, which provides comprehensive HIV medical care, and a Perinatal HIV Program. The comprehensive intervention significantly improved retention in HIV care and increased viral suppression at both six and 12 months postpartum.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Project ACCEPT is designed to improve engagement and retention in medical care for youth ages 16 to 24 years with newly diagnosed HIV. The educational and skill-building intervention was deployed at four demonstration sites and increased rates of medication use and appointment adherence in comparison to a control group. Although originally developed for cisgender youth, Project ACCEPT may be adapted for gender-diverse people.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Project CONNECT uses linkage coordinators to effectively engage people in HIV medical care. It focuses on people with newly diagnosed HIV or people with HIV who are transferring their care or have been out of care. AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland implemented Project CONNECT as part of E2i, an initiative funded by the RWHAP Part F SPNS program from 2017–2021. Project CONNECT was successful in increasing the number of clients retained in HIV care and who reached viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Yale Community Health Care Van and Clinic, and Liberty Community Services, Inc., empowered clients to set and achieve employment and housing goals, as well as strengthened the ability of community-based organizations to provide related services. This initiative known as Project HERO was implemented between 2017 and 2020 as part of the HIV, Housing, and Employment SPNS initiative.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Project nGage is a support intervention approach that offers participants an initial 90-minute session with a social work interventionist and a participant support confidant to develop a tailored care and support plan. The social work interventionist then offers four follow-up sessions to each participant to discuss progress on the care and support plan. Project nGage was evaluated in a randomized controlled trial from 2012 to 2015: participants in the intervention were more likely to have at least three HIV primary care visits in the last 12 months than those who received usual care.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    STYLE 2.0 is a multi-component intervention designed to help reduce stigma and social isolation for Black gay, bisexual, and other men who have sex with men. The intervention relies on health care navigators who facilitate linkage and engagement activities. They also connect clients to behavioral health providers who conduct motivational interviewing, as well as to a mobile application that supports all intervention activities. STYLE 2.0 participation has been associated with positive trends across HIV care continuum outcomes, including retention in care and increased viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The Ruth M. Rothstein CORE Center launched Proyecto Promover to decrease HIV testing-related stigma, increase awareness of HIV status, and increase early linkage to and retention in care among Mexicanos with HIV. The program operates at the community level through social marketing, educational talks, networking, and testing. On the individual level, Proyecto Promover uses one-on-one conversations to identify and overcome barriers related to care engagement and retention. Evaluation showed promising rates of HIV testing, retention in care, and viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    San Joaquin County Public Health Services Department partnered with the California Department of Public Health, Office of AIDS to help clients get to medical appointments via ridesharing. Representing the first partnership between a jurisdiction and a ridesharing company, this program addresses transportation barriers, promotes engagement in medical care, and leads to cost savings.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Routine Universal Screening for HIV (RUSH) provides non-medical case management services, opt-out HIV testing, and linkage to care for emergency department patients. The intervention automatically screens patients for HIV if they are aged 16 years or older, are having an IV inserted, or are having blood drawn for other reasons, unless the patient opts out. RUSH provides access to testing earlier in disease progression, bridging disparities that primarily impact people of color. It also promotes linkage to and retention in care for those with a positive HIV test result. Clients with a positive HIV test in the emergency department who had a prior diagnosis of HIV were more likely to be retained in care and to reach viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    SBIRT is designed to screen clients for drug and alcohol use, educate clients on the risks of use, and connect them to substance use treatment services if necessary. SBIRT is an evidence-informed intervention that has been adapted by HIV experts in collaboration with community members to improve health outcomes among people with HIV. Two sites implemented SBIRT as part of E2i, an initiative funded by the RWHAP Part F SPNS program from 2017–2021. Among the clients enrolled in SBIRT, the percentage with a prescription of antiretroviral therapy (ART) and who reached viral suppression both increased significantly.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Seeking Safety helps people who have experienced trauma and/or substance use disorder gain safe coping skills through a flexible 12-session intervention. The University of California, San Diego Mother Child Adolescent HIV Program and the Multicultural AIDS Coalition implemented Seeking Safety as part of E2i, an initiative funded by the RWHAP Part F SPNS program from 2017–2021. Participants had higher rates of retention in care and viral suppression after 12 months of the intervention.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Stay Connected for Your Health helps clients stay engaged in HIV medical care through clinic-wide messaging, enhanced personal contact, and behavioral skills training. Originally implemented by six academically affiliated HIV clinics nationwide more than 10 years ago, this 12-month intervention has become well-established and is incorporated in many provider trainings. Evaluations show that people with HIV receiving behavioral skills training and personalized and frequent positive messages about care engagement were more likely to be engaged in care. 
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Tailored Motivational Interviewing (TMI) delivers brief motivational interviewing counseling sessions customized to encourage people with HIV to engage in HIV care, take HIV medications as prescribed, and improve other health-related behaviors. Three sites implemented TMI as part of E2i, an initiative funded by the RWHAP Part F SPNS program from 2017 to 2021. Clients who participated in TMI had significant improvement in engagement in care, prescription of antiretroviral therapy, retention in care, and viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The Text Messaging Intervention to Improve Antiretroviral Adherence among HIV-Positive Youth (TXTXT) is designed to keep young people, particularly young, Black, gay, bisexual, same-gender loving, and other men who have sex with men, engaged in HIV medical care, by delivering personalized, daily, interactive text messages that remind them to take their antiretroviral therapy as prescribed. Two sites implemented TXTXT as part of E2i, an initiative funded by the RWHAP Part F SPNS program from 2017–2021. The intervention resulted in a statistically significant improvement in engagement in HIV care.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The Village Project is an intensive case management-based intervention that harnesses peer navigation and integrated behavioral health services to improve the health outcomes of young Black gay, bisexual, and men who have sex with men. The Village Project was associated with increased retention in care and viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Bienestar developed TransActivate to improve timely engagement and retention in HIV care among Latina transgender women. Linkage coordinators/peer navigators use a strengths-based approach to help clients reach their goals of entering and staying in medical care to ultimately reach viral suppression.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    The Rutgers New Jersey Medical School created a transgender health program and integrated it into their Infectious Disease Practice. The program conducted community outreach to engage transgender men and women in care, trained all staff on gender affirming care, hired transgender staff, provided gender affirming care and hormone treatments onsite, and offered mental health support to patients.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    T.W.E.E.T. aims to engage transgender women in HIV care by combining weekly peer-based education and discussion groups, leadership training, community building, and the provision of supportive services. Three sites implemented T.W.E.E.T. as part of E2i, an initiative funded by the RWHAP Part F SPNS program from 2017–2021. Clients had improved outcomes across the HIV care continuum 12 months after enrollment in T.W.E.E.T.
  • Dissemination of Evidence Informed-Interventions Project (DEII)
    Transitional care coordination intervention informed and adapted from the best practice findings of a past SPNS initiative that yielded successful HIV care continuum outcomes among client participants.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    MacGregor Infectious Diseases, a hospital-based clinic affiliated with the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, implemented a multidisciplinary approach to strengthen outreach to clients and improve care retention. As compared to clients in standard care, clients served with the multidisciplinary approach had higher rates of retention in care, particularly among clients who were not virally suppressed.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    Viviendo Valiente aims to reduce ethnic disparities in HIV care and outcomes by providing culturally responsive services to the Latino/a community, specifically to people of Mexican descent. It is a multi-level intervention, featuring individual-, group-, and community-level activities, that links people to HIV care, offers HIV education and health literacy in group sessions, and promotes community-level testing for HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Viviendo Valiente had positive impacts on HIV testing, retention in care, viral suppression, and client satisfaction.
  • Best Practices Compilation
    In weCare, a cyber health educator sent personalized messages through text, web-based apps, and Facebook to enrolled youth who identified as gay, bisexual, or other men who have sex with men (MSM), or transgender women, and who either had a new diagnosis of HIV or were not in care at the time of enrollment. Messages were personalized to each participant’s needs and were designed to support them as they navigated complicated health care systems as well as other challenges that affect care engagement (e.g., transportation, disclosure). The cyber health educator also moderated and posted information about health and well-being on an optional secret Facebook page that some participants chose to join. Participants were less likely to miss medical appointments and more likely to be virally suppressed after 12 months of the intervention.

Resources

  • University of Washington

    Online clinician training platform with evidence-based core competency training on HIV prevention, screening, diagnosis, care, and key populations.

  • Dissemination of Evidence Informed-Interventions Project (DEII)
    Series of six brief, animated videos with HIV-specific patient education tailored for women of color with HIV.
  • Dissemination of Evidence Informed-Interventions Project (DEII)
    Esta es una serie de seis videos animados breves que brinda educación específica sobre el VIH para pacientes y está destinada especialmente a mujeres de color que viven con el VIH.

Training Modules

Webinars

Conference Presentations

AIDS Foundation Chicago
Presenters:
Andrea Dakin, Nora Bouacha
2022 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care & Treatment
Baltimore City Health Department
Presenters:
Amit Chattopadhyay, Victoria Cargill
2022 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care & Treatment
NORC at the University of Chicago
Presenters:
Prashila Dullabh, Jeffrey Glotfelty, Sara LeGrand, Armstrong Tingwane
2020 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care & Treatment
Greater Lawrence Family Health Center
Presenters:
Christopher Bositis, Sandra Silva, Amy Bositis
2020 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care & Treatment
Washington University School of Medicine
Presenters:
Katie Plax, Cathy Reback, Kimberly Kisler, Scott Rhodes
2020 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care & Treatment

Technical Assistance

  • Capacity building for the RWHAP community to navigate the changing health care landscape and help people with HIV to access and use their health coverage to improve health outcomes. Project period: 2022-2025.
  • The central hub of the AETC Program, the clinical training arm of the RWHAP, through HIV curricula, technical support to regional AETCs on practice transformation and best practices, and housing of all AETC-developed tools for HIV clinical staff. Project period: 2019-2024.
  • TA/training for RWHAP agencies to improve the quality of HIV/AIDS care they provide. Project period: 2020-2024.

  • Initiative documenting best practice strategies and interventions that have been shown to improve HIV outcomes in a "real world" setting and can be replicated by other programs. Project period: 2021-2024.

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