PROJECT OVERVIEW
The
Consumer-Provider Partnership for Care Program will provide
HIV healthcare agencies with a framework for developing partnerships
between their staff and HIV+ women consumers in order to improve
their reach, recruitment and retention of other HIV+ women who are
not in care. Through specialized training and technical assistance,
agencies will learn how to establish and utilize effective
consumer-provider partnerships to address the daunting challenges of
engaging and retaining hard-to-reach vulnerable women in care.
These
partnerships will also contribute to the provision of comprehensive,
coordinated and culturally competent family-centered HIV care that
includes the active involvement of consumers in their own care.
BACKGROUND
Agencies can
have difficulty identifying and reaching the most vulnerable HIV+
women in need of care and/or retaining HIV+ women in services.
However, your consumers often know how to find other women who are
not accessing services, and understand the issues that make it
difficult for HIV+ women and their families to access services and
manage their healthcare.
Your consumers
(HIV+ women who are successfully involved in their own healthcare)
and clinical staff can work effectively in partnership to address
these challenges. Consumers can function as role models to other
HIV+ women, and as liaisons between clinical care staff and women in
need of services.
For the
consumer-provider partnership to work effectively and improve access
to and retention in services, both consumers and clinical staff need
training and follow-up support on partnering together and utilizing
evidence-based techniques and public health strategies such as:
All of the
interventions and strategies presented in this training program have
documented evidence of efficacy and the training will allow for a
broad dissemination of these techniques through Ryan White Part D
agencies. Consumers and clinical staff will learn to pursue this
unique partnership with the common goals of identifying
hard-to-reach, vulnerable HIV+ women and their families, increasing
access to care, and supporting women as they learn to become
actively involved in their own healthcare.
ABOUT
CICATELLI ASSOCIATES INC.
CAI is a
nonprofit, 501(c)(3) training and technical assistance organization
that has been working to improve the quality of HIV care to
underserved, vulnerable populations since the beginning of the
epidemic. Using our successful model of training and technical
assistance, and our experience training on integrating peer
advocates in healthcare teams to Ryan White funded agencies and
other HIV healthcare providers, we have designed the onsite
technical assistance that targets clinical care staff and consumers.
