The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #49487

Victoria Frye, MPH, Center for Comprehensive Care, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, 1000 Tenth Avenue, Room 14A32, New York, NY 10019, 212-523-6036, vaf5@columbia.edu, Victoria Sharp, MD, Center for Comprehensive Care, St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center, 1000 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10019, Susan Xenarios, MSW, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Crime Victims Treatment Center, 411 West 114th Street, New York, NY 10019, Cydelle Berlin, PhD, NiteStar, St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center, 1000 Tenth Avenue, New York, NY 10019, Arthur Blank, PhD, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 1300 Jerome Avenue, Belfar Building, Room 905, Bronx, NY 10461, and Denise Hien, PhD, St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Women's Health Project, 411 West 114th Street, New York, NY 10019.

Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence (IPV/SV) is a significant source of psychological and physical morbidity in the United States (US). Connecting HIV+ patients with IPV/SV services that address their needs is an important public health goal. The Center for Comprehensive Care (CCC) of the St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, New York, NY, has developed a project to deliver IPV/SV services to HIV+ patients. The project builds staff capacity to respond to IPV/SV using innovative theater-based training methods and improves access to culturally competent IPV/SV services by offering referrals to either the community-based IPV/SV program, in Phase 1, or to CCC staff, in Phase 2. The project has experienced the great challenges and rewards of integrating distinct perspectives and disciplines into a single service-delivery project. Integrating the empowerment orientation of the community-based organization and the biomedical orientation of the HIV care center has been one challenge. > Increasing access to services while researching those services, which may act as a disincentive to participate, constitutes another challenge. Despite these challenges, the project reflects the diversity of approach and the richness of knowledge that is being brought to bear on the project and promises an innovative design that can serve as a model for other HIV-care centers. We recommend to others that are considering such projects to be aware of the following: a commitment to screening practices does not necessarily reflect a shared socio-political orientation, institutional support is critical, honest and open communication is critical to the process, and daunting projects require commitment and flexibility.

Learning Objectives:

• To describe the methods used by one program to integrate intimate partner and sexual violence (IPV/SV) services into an HIV-care center.
• To identify the challenges faced by combining the medical model of an HIV care center with the empowerment model of a domestic violence advocacy/service organization.
• To learn about strategies to combine philosophies and practices.

Keywords: Women, Violence

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.