The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #43014

Mari P. Millery, PhD and Kalil Vicioso. Center for Applied Public Health, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, 722 W. 168th Street, New York, NY 10032, 212-305-6821, mm994@columbia.edu

The Targeted Provider Education Demonstration (TPED) program developed and implemented nine innovative models of continuing HIV education for healthcare support service professionals (HSSPs) in agencies serving minority communities. Based on an analysis of qualitative data obtained via surveys, interviews, focus groups, and field observations, we will describe the TPED interventions and discuss what outcomes this three-year program achieved. Capacity building, training-of-trainers, activity-based adult learning, and coalition building are examples of components of the intervention models. Several outcomes were identified in a preliminary analysis of the data. Offering introductory-level education successfully resulted in agencies committing to longitudinal interventions, reflecting a paradigm-shift in how the agencies viewed the importance of continuing HIV education for their staff. Inter-agency networking increased both in formally structured coalition models, and serendipitously, as agencies interacted in the TPED context. These initial outcomes are expected to ultimately lead to a sustained capacity for continuing HIV education in the target communities. One unanticipated consequence of increasing the individual HSSPs’ personal capacity through training was that the trained individuals often left the target agencies for better jobs, resulting in decreased capacity of the target agency. However, these individuals typically remained within the same communities. The TPED program illustrates the complexity of the multiple levels that an effective HIV professional education program needs to target, ranging from individual care providers to agencies, agency networks and communities. The TPED program demonstrates that agency-level interventions, such as agency capacity building, are an effective way of bringing HIV education to HSSPs in minority communities.

Learning Objectives:

• To identify several models for bringing continuing HIV education to staff at community-based agencies and to recognize outcomes that can be achieved through such models.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Education

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.