The Institute of Medicine's report, Reducing the Odds, recommends "universal HIV testing with patient notification as a routine component of prenatal care." Many organizations, including ACOG, AAP, ASTHO and AMCHP, also have issued policy statements that support universal HIV testing for pregnant women in conjunction with various counseling prerequisites. Yet studies indicate that, while the majority of providers agree in principle with offering HIV testing to all pregnant patients, in practice only 50-75 percent actually do so. Barriers prenatal providers cite include lack of time, legal requirements for counseling and informed consent, lack of perceived risk, need for confidential record keeping, and lack of awareness of effective treatment among pregnant women. To address these and other barriers, public and private sector representatives in Connecticut, including clinicians, public health officials, health educators and academics, joined forces in a "Providers' Partnership Project on Perinatal HIV." Despite their diverse perspectives and backgrounds and the fact that many had never even met before, they were able to confront the inherent challenges of partnership building and develop a unique statewide campaign to educate providers and patients about the importance of HIV counseling and testing during pregnancy. At this session, partnership participants from the state public health department, the AIDS Education and Training Center and the Connecticut section of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, will share their individual and collective perspectives and offer "lessons learned" to others interested in undertaking similar partnership initiatives in their states.
Learning Objectives: 1) Identify challenges to forging public/private partnerships around perinatal HIV issues and strategies for overcoming them. 2) Articulate provider and patient barriers to HIV counseling and testing during pregnancy and describe strategies for addressing them
Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Partnerships
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
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.