Fred Molitor¹, Jenny Waltermeyer¹, Marisol Mendoza¹, Arthur Aguirre¹, and Kama Brockmann, PhD, LCSW². (1) ETR Associates, 2210 21st Street, Sacramento, CA 95818, 916.452.8065, fredm@etr.org, (2) State of California Office of AIDS, 611 N. 7th Street, Sacramento, CA 95816

Objective: To determine if race/ethnicity, HIV exposure, or length of time without medical care explains number of client contacts needed or success in linking into HIV medical care. Methods: The California Bridge Project operates in 21 state-funded Early Intervention Programs. Bridge Workers (BW) assist people with HIV into HIV care, treatment and prevention services. BW collect data about clients including self-reports of most recent HIV-positive test and HIV exposure and referrals and linkages to all HIV-related services. Results: Of 303 Bridge clients who had never received HIV medical care, 66 had known their HIV-positive status for more than 6 months. Chi-squared analysis of length of time without medical care (> vs. < 6 months) indicated that African Americans (compared with whites and Latinos) and injection drug users (compared with non-injectors) were without medical care longer (both P<0.001). BW had, on average, 9.3 contacts per client; these did not differ by length of time without medical care (P=0.73). Length of time without medical care did not explain client success in linking with HIV medical care – 76% of clients without care for less than six months and 87% of clients without care for more than six months were successfully linked to medical care (P=0.24). Conclusion: Similar projects can expect length of time without medical care to differ by race/ethnicity and HIV exposure. However, persons without medical care for over six months do not require additional staff time and are just as likely to link to HIV medical services.

Learning Objectives:

• To determine factors related to access to medical care. To identify factors related to linking HIV-positive persons to medical care.

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.