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CAI NEWS July-September 2009 Vol. 2, No. 2 |
FEATURED NEWS
CAI Opens New Office in Albany, New York
CAI is pleased to announce the opening of its new office in Albany, New York. Newly renovated, the office has two large training rooms, a conference room, offices, and a reception area and kitchen facility. The new CAI office is centrally located and easily accessible, just off Wolf Road at 2 Winners Circle, and there is ample parking and multiple hotels and eateries in close proximity. Training and meeting rooms will be available for rent. For more information, please contact Dean LaBate at Dean@cicatelli.org.
NATIONAL NEWS
CAI to Receive the Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund 2009 Medical Advancement Award
In October, at the Avon Foundation for Women Gala Celebration, Barbara Cicatelli and Kathy Gates-Ferris will be presented with the 2009 Medical Advancement Award. The award is in recognition for invaluable contributions to the fight against breast cancer and for leadership in providing hundreds of thousands of women throughout the country with access to early detection. The award and recognition comes on the 10th Anniversary of community outreach and education through the Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund.
The Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund (AFBCF) was created by Avon to reach the women most in need of breast cancer screening and treatment services. Through the AFBCF, financial support is made available to community-based programs providing education and outreach to medically underserved women, including low-income, older, and minority women. Since 2000, CAI has overseen the distribution of more than $50 million in AFBCF grants to community-based, non-profit breast cancer health programs. By the end of 2009, nearly one million mammograms and clinical breast exams will have been facilitated and more than 15 million people will have received education on breast cancer awareness as a result of the AFBCF.
CAI Completes Staten Island STOP (Support to Overcome Puffing) Program
CAI held the New York State Tobacco Cessation Center grant for Staten Island Support to Overcome Puffing (SI STOP) from August 1, 2004 through July 31, 2009. During this time, the Cessation Center worked with health care providers on Staten Island, particularly hospitals and primary care clinics, assisting them with incorporating the treatment of tobacco dependence into their systems so that every patient or client is assessed for tobacco use and every tobacco user is offered effective treatment options if they are ready to quit.
The importance of this project cannot be overstated: According to the New York City Department of Health (NYCDOH), in 2002 on Staten Island 27.2 percent of all adults were smokers, compared to 21.2 percent for the rest of New York City. In 2007, the rate of smokers in Staten Island had dropped by a quarter to 20.4 percent of adults (the rate for all of New York City had fallen to 16.9 percent). Staten Island’s decline in smokers was especially pronounced among men, falling from 29.3 percent in 2006 to 19.9 percent in 2007. The NYCDOH numbers show that this is the first time there has ever been such a sharp decline in smokers on Staten Island.
Through SI STOP, CAI trained providers and staff at area hospitals and clinics on ways to integrate tobacco cessation into their systems. We then provided ongoing technical assistance as they worked through systematizing this new level of care. CAI also trained health care providers on effective treatments, how to discuss smoking cessation and use motivational interviewing techniques with their patients, and provided assistance in evaluating the changes once they were put into place. SI STOP also distributed free nicotine replacement products, Quitline materials, and other resources.
During the last year, SI STOP exceeded many of our programmatic goals. We worked with 18 clinics and hospitals that, by the end of the project, were fully implementing these systems changes and collecting data as part of a quality assurance program. In addition, we were helping 84 clinics with the early stages of tobacco cessation integration, including assessing their systems, providing training and developing plans to implement systems changes. We also trained or provided technical assistance to 49 health care provider organizations, exceeding our goal of 15 by more than 300 percent.
SI STOP also established a strong and growing relationship with Staten Island University Hospital (SIUH) by providing training as SIUH's campuses began enforcing a smoke-free policy for employees and patients. In March, SI STOP addressed Staten Island’s high pregnancy and smoking rates by holding a one-day clinical conference titled "Pregnancy and Smoking" for OB/GYN professionals. Nearly 100 Staten Island health care providers, legislators, and community partners attended the conference. Nationally recognized experts, including Dr. Lowell C. Dale, Director of the Mayo Clinic Tobacco Quitline, and Cathy Melvin, PhD, MPH, presented on the treatment of tobacco dependency during pregnancy.
By working on infrastructure and sustainability, and providing ongoing training and technical assistance throughout the project, SI STOP was successful in helping health care providers on Staten Island to develop and implement the treatment of tobacco dependence into their systems. Staten Island’s medical professionals are now better equipped to screen patients for tobacco use, to provide assistance in quitting, and to make each quit attempt successful. CAI is now transitioning this project over to Richmond University Medical Center, our longstanding partner on Staten Island, to continue this important work with SI health care providers.
CAI Awarded Funding for Two New Special Projects
CAI, the administrative infrastructure of the Region II and IV Infertility Prevention Projects (IPP), was recently awarded competitive funding for two one-year special projects for FY2010. Region II is composed of New York, New Jersey, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands and Region IV is composed of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Titled “Query-able Prevalence Monitoring Database (Q-PMD) for Targeted Local Trends Analysis,” the first project seeks to build upon current data and reports to inform program targeting and resource allocation in Region II. The project’s goal is to reduce health disparities by increasing the capacity of state and local programs affiliated with the IPP to use chlamydia and gonorrhea prevalence monitoring data as a tool to support appropriate activities.
This project will build on current efforts to support regional partners in identifying, describing and developing strategies to address communities disproportionately affected by gonorrhea and chlamydia utilizing widely available morbidity and prevalence data. The objective of this special project is to build a secure, web-based database application that will allow Project Area IPP Coordinators and Program Managers to access facility-level chlamydia and gonorrhea prevalence monitoring data using specific queries to filter records by year, client age, gender, and race/ethnicity as well as facility type and location.
In Region IV, the project, “Addressing Health Disparities in African American Communities Utilizing a Community-based Participatory Research Approach,” will conduct enhanced data analysis utilizing geo-spatial technology (e.g., mapping of prevalence and surveillance data) to identify and define African American communities that have been disproportionately affected by gonorrhea in at least two states in the Region.
This special project will be conducted in partnership with the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (Sheps Center). Once these communities are identified and defined, cost-neutral strategies to reduce gonorrhea health disparities in the identified areas will be developed and implemented, drawing on the potential to utilize a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach.
Avon Research and Evaluation Team Presenting at 2009 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium
The CAI Avon Research and Evaluation Team (Kathy Ferris, Banghee Chi, Kelly Opdyke and Mary Grace Pagaduan) is pleased to announce that their abstract submission to the 2009 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium (SABCS) was accepted as a poster presentation entitled, “Promising Practices in Mammography Recruitment, Retention and Rescreening for Breast Cancer Early Detection among Community-Based Programs Supported by the Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund”.
Supported by the Avon Foundation, CAI is the coordinating center for the Avon Foundation Breast Care Fund (AFBCF), providing grants management and technical assistance to more than 140 community-based organizations that are nationally funded to conduct outreach and education to link medically underserved women with breast cancer screening services. The evaluation project is being conducted in partnership with the Avon Foundation and James Bell Associates Inc. The project will use organizational and client service data to identify promising practices for the recruitment, retention and rescreening of medically underserved women age 40 years and older.
Findings from this evaluation project will be written up in a formal report and submitted to a peer-reviewed journal publication. In addition, evaluation findings will be presented formally to Avon Foundation beneficiaries in February 2010 during the Avon Forum in San Francisco.
The SABCS is an annual international scientific symposium directed primarily towards academics, private physicians and researchers involved in breast cancer in medical, surgical, gynecologic, and radiation oncology, as well as other health care professionals. The meeting attracts more than 17,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. The 2009 symposium takes place from December 9-13; visit www.sabcs.org for more information.
CAI Funded to Coordinate a Training-of-Trainers for the Northeast Federal Training Centers Collaborative (Northeast FTCC)
CAI just received one-year funding from the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) to coordinate a training-of-trainers (TOT) for the Northeast FTCC. The FTCC is comprised of representatives from the six federally funded training projects that address HIV/AIDS, including HRSA-funded NY/NJ AIDS Education and Training Center; the SAMHSA-funded NE Addiction Technology Transfer Center; the CDC-funded NYS STD/HIV Prevention Training Centers; the OPA-funded Region II STD/HIV Prevention Training Center; the Regional Tuberculosis (TB) Training and Medical Consultation Consortium (NJMS Global TB Institute); and the Viral Hepatitis Training Center.
The focus of the TOT will be on enhancing program collaboration and service integration by developing a model for collaborative training between federally funded training centers providing HIV prevention services. We will design and implement a three-day TOT that addresses the core competencies required by all FTCC trainers in order to provide a comprehensive approach to HIV prevention in racial and ethnic minority populations.
More specifically, we will identify the overlapping core competencies for training on HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, sexually transmitted infections, hepatitis, tuberculosis and reproductive health, and then Northeast FTCC trainers with those areas of expertise will train other FTCC trainers in the region. The result will be master trainers across the Northeast FTCC that can address public health strategies for integrating HIV, TB, STIs, Hepatitis, substance abuse, and reproductive health.
CAI to Serve as Lead Agency for the Southeast Region Federal Training Centers Collaborative (Southeast FTCC)
In September, CAI/Atlanta, which is the Title X Region IV, Regional Training Center (RTC), was awarded one-year funding from the Office of Population Affairs (OPA) to serve as the lead agency for the Southeast Region Federal Training Centers Collaborative (Southeast FTCC). The Southeast FTCC is composed of 13 training centers located in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas. The following training centers collaborated with CAI/Atlanta to develop the application and have agreed to participate in the FTCC:
Working closely with OPA, the Southeast FTCC will formally bring the training center network together to build their capacity and regularly work together to deliver a coordinated training effort that maximizes the impact of training activities in the region relative to HIV/STD, infectious disease prevention, care, and treatment. Racial and ethnic minority communities disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS will be of particular focus.
Several activities are planned for the coming year. A Steering Committee will be formed to develop a strategic plan that will guide and lead the training collaborative and an assessment will be conducted at all of the training centers to identify shared and unique priorities, core activities, and any need for capacity building. A Southeast FTCC website and quarterly e-newsletter will also be developed to increase awareness of the Collaborative within the region and at least three regional webinar trainings will be held for service providers jointly facilitated by the training centers (participants will be able to receive CME and other continuing education units).
CAI Offering Two Regional Trainings under the Consumer Provider Partnership for Care: Recruitment & Retention of HIV+ Women into Services
The Consumer Provider Partnership for Care training and technical assistance targets Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program-Funded Part D grantees and will provide health care agencies a framework for developing partnerships between their staff and women patients who are HIV positive. The goal is for the agencies to improve their outreach, recruitment and retention of HIV positive women who are not in care, new to care, or lost to care.
The Southwestern regional training will take place in Dallas, Texas on November 17-20, 2009. The Western regional training will take place in Los Angeles, California, December 8-11, 2009. Ryan White Part D grantees that work with women who are HIV positive and their families will be given first preference. Part A, B, and C-funded grantees are eligible to apply and will be contacted if space permits. This project is being conducted as part of a HRSA National Training and Technical Assistance Cooperative Agreement targeting Part D grantees.
For more information, please contact Cornell Wrisby at cornell@cicatelli.org or (212) 594-7741 x258.
CAI Training to Help HIV+ Youth Transition to Adult Services Programs
The Transitioning HIV+ Youth from Adolescent to Adult Services Program is part of the national Consumer-Provider Partnership Project CAI is conducting. The training and technical assistance helps agencies implement effective and innovative strategies for building up HIV+ young adult consumers to serve as mentors who can help other HIV+ youth successfully transition to adult health care. These consumer-provider partnerships will help manage this transition, and contribute to the provision of comprehensive, coordinated, and culturally competent HIV care.
This training opportunity is available to Ryan White Funded Part D grantees that work with HIV+ adolescents or young adults. Part A, B, and C Ryan White funded grantees are also eligible to apply.
The next training program will take place in Spring 2010 in the Western region. Details will be posted soon at www.cicatelli.org/HRSAConsumer/HRSAConsumerGroups.htm.
16th Annual North Atlantic Training Institute for Sexual Health Educators (NATISHE) a Success
The 16th annual NATISHE took place the week of July 27th in Rensselaerville, NY. NATISHE is a five-day skills-oriented training institute that focuses on the development of training programs and presentation skills. It is designed particularly for individuals in family planning settings, schools and community-based organizations. This year’s NATISHE – “(r)Evolution: Today’s Sexual Health Educator” – provided participants with the opportunity to develop a new skill set that included planning and conducting outreach; providing short educationally-based counseling sessions in the clinic setting; and re-thinking their training initiatives to be more outcomes focused.
Close to 40 participants attended from throughout New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Puerto Rico. All workshops and plenary sessions were designed and delivered by the NATISHE Core Staff, a distinguished group of leaders in the fields of family planning and sexuality. The 2009 NATISHE created an excellent networking and skills building environment to help foster the growth and development of both new and seasoned sexual health educators.
National Title X Grantee Conference
The bi-annual Title X Grantee meeting was held August 19-21, 2009 in Chicago, IL, and close to 300 Title X staff attended. The goal of the meeting was to communicate Office of Population Affairs, Office of Family Planning (OPA/OFP) policies, initiatives, priorities, and accomplishments. During the meeting, almost 30 presenters provided updates on OPA-funded projects, information on national issues facing family planning providers, and acknowledgement of the important role family planning has in maintaining the health of our nation. The highlight of the meeting was an inspirational presentation on the last day by Dr. Howard Koh, the new Assistant Secretary for Health.
Title X HIV Prevention Grantee Conference Attracts More than 200 Attendees
The National Training Center for Family Planning (NTC) planned and coordinated the 10th annual OPA Technical Support Conference that took place in April in San Diego, CA.
The objectives of the conference were to update HIV Prevention projects on recent initiatives and advancements in HIV prevention; to explore strategies to improve integration of routine testing; to strengthen partnerships among the projects and grantees, both regionally and nationally; and to build skills related to prevention education and HIV/AIDS counseling. HIV Prevention grantees were also able to highlight some of their work during a poster session.
The 219 conference attendees were welcomed with words from Susan Moskosky, Director of the Office of Family Planning at OPA and a data presentation by Tammy Lee, Data Coordinator for the OPA HIV Intervention Project. Evelyn Kappeler, Acting Director of the Office of Population Affairs, provided opening remarks.
Highlights included a conference panel by prevention grantees about Key Strategies for HIV Integration, and presentations by: Thomas Freese, PhD (Substance Use and HIV); Dawn Smith, MD (Antiretroviral Prophylaxis: Non-occupational Post Exposure Prophylaxis (nPEP) and Pre Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP)); and Rodney Wright, MD (HIV 201: The New Basics). Attendees were also able to participate in mini-seminars on topics ranging from Using New Media; Cultural Competence; Motivational Interviewing; and Delivering a Positive HIV Test Result.
Overall participant feedback indicates that the conference was very successful in meeting its objectives. Participants found the conference informative and useful for their jobs, with relevant, thought provoking, and stimulating presentations and speakers. Plenary and workshop speakers – both nationally recognized experts and fellow HIV integration projects – were rated highly. As in past years, the participants appreciated having this opportunity to meet each other and to learn about each other’s programs, and to network and share ideas amongst themselves.
All conference presentations can be accessed on the NTC website at http://www.cicatelli.org/ntc.
INTERNATIONAL NEWS
CAI Presents Results of HIV/STI Behavioral Risk Study in the Dominican Republic
The leadership of the Armed Forces of the Dominican Republic invited CAI President Barbara Cicatelli, MA, and CAI’s Senior Research Scientist, Michael Anastario, PhD, to present the results of the HIV/STI behavioral risk study that CAI conducted with 498 Dominican military personnel stationed on the border of Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Dr. Maria Isabel Tavarez presented background information on the study, and Dr. Anastario presented behavioral prevalence statistics and discussed various findings. Dr. Anastario emphasized the need to address mental health and sexual coercion in preventive programming for the region, and reiterated that messages must come from the chain of command and military leadership. Key program officers from USAID, the CDC, and various NGOs were in attendance. Following the presentation, Barbara Cicatelli was presented with an award for CAI’s service and dedication to improving HIV prevention efforts in the Dominican Armed Forces.
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