Despite recent trends demonstrating a reduction in HIV rates among certain groups in the United States, the CDC report that HIV/AIDS rates among racial/ethnic minorities remain disproportionately high. Yet a review of existing HIV prevention programs and research reveals a profound gap in our understanding of effective HIV prevention in these communities.
In 1998, actions by community leaders prompted members of the Congressional Black and Hispanic Latino Caucuses to urge President Clinton to declare HIV/AIDS a crisis in the African American and Hispanic communities. The resulting Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI), is he first major federal effort to develop community-based, integrated HIV and substance abuse prevention approaches targeting these populations. We describes the current state of HIV prevention research with racial/ethnic minority populations and the SAMHSA Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) Initiative to develop and test the effectiveness and efficiency of community-based prevention interventions in racial/ethnic communities implemented by 47 community-based organizations with over 10,000 participants.
In addition to providing services to a large number of individuals, the data collected through this Initiative will improve knowledge on how to best prevent HIV in these communities. The over 10,000 Americans who will complete the survey and the diverse community-based organizations participating in the data collection effort of the SAMHSA Initiative make this an unparalleled opportunity to learn about the risk and protective factors, including contextual factors, that are critical to the prevention of HIV/AIDS in African American, Hispanic and other racial/ethnic communities but that are often not investigated.
Learning Objectives: 1. to understand why HIV/AIDS rates remain higher among racial/ethnic minorities
Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Community Involvement
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.