The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #50814

Deborah J. Gordis, MPH, Vice President for Government Programs, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, 1108 16th St. N.W., Washington, DC 20008, 202-347-8500, deborah.gordis@ppmw.org and L. Shea Gutierrez, MPH, HIV Program Coordinator, Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington, 1108 16th St. N.W., Washington, DC 20008.

Federal Title X Guidelines require that family planning patients be provided HIV/AIDS education and counseling and offered testing as needed. In the past decade, the most dramatic increases in AIDS cases have been among young women of color, also the primary population served by Title X clinics. However, many clinics have not been able to offer universal counseling and testing due to budgetary constraints. In 2001, the Office of Population Affairs made available funding to “expand the availability of on-site HIV counseling, testing, and referral services in a limited number of family planning clinics, primarily those in communities where racial and ethnic minorities are under-served or disproportionately impacted by HIV/AIDS.”

Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington (PPMW) is the Federal grantee for the District of Columbia’s Title X family planning program and became an HIV program grantee in July, 2001. Service implementation began in PPMW’s two D.C. clinics in October. Adding on-demand testing required staff training, policy development, chart/patient flow changes, additional data collection, laboratory arrangements, and referral agreements. Outcomes of implementation included staff frustration and anxiety, chart management conflict, patient flow disruptions, increased “worried well” walk-ins, staff and client confusion around the need to return for results as opposed to phone results. Clinics that have long offered testing and treatment for other STDs may find incorporating HIV counseling and testing more difficult than imagined. HIV services are distinct in their attendant legal and policy issues. Current CDC guidelines apply most easily to HIV testing centers or STD clinics, although the revised guidelines provide more flexibility. Little guidance specific to family planning clinics was found in the literature.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand new initiative launched by the Federal Office of Population Affairs. Identify barriers to integrating universal HIV Counseling and Testing services into busy Federally funded family planning programs. Learn from one grantee’s experience attempting an integration that seemed fairly simply when writing the proposal.

Keywords: HIV/AIDS, Family Planning

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.