Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

Abstract #108865

Judith Bradford, PhD and Allison Jones. The Fenway Institute, Fenway Community Health, 7 Haviland St., Boston, MA 02115, 804-304-2667, jbbradfo@vcu.edu

In partnership with other community-based organizations who wish to form a Health Access Network for underserved populations, Fenway Community Health initiated development of an innovative linkage outreach model, Health System Navigation (HSN). Health system navigators (HSNs) assist HIV+ individuals to obtain access to HIV healthcare and to become engaged and retained in care. HSNs work with their clients at the boundaries of the healthcare system, using social network-based strategies for case finding. A cadre of staff from multiple agencies conducts the HSN intervention, based on a common set of skills, activities, and data collection/reporting activities. The specific goals of the intervention are to assist the client to become engaged and to be retained in HIV medical care. In this presentation we will identify the challenges we have faced in training and deploying staff from multiple agencies to conduct essentially the same activities, within varying agency environments. As these CBOs in Boston strive to create a coordinated system for bringing out-of-care individuals into HIV care, a number of systemic barriers have been encountered and at least partially overcome. The importance of cross-agency training has been made clear. To be effective, this training must accommodate the range of cultural and professional differences represented by partner organizations. We anticipate a measurable payoff from our efforts, in the form of increased access to healthcare for out-of-care populations and in the readiness of community health organizations to provide accessible and competent care to these underserved individuals.

Learning Objectives: Participants will be able to

• Identify challenges and facilitators in cross-agency development of a new HIV outreach intervention.
• Describe the benefits of collaborative efforts to tailor the intervention for diverse populations and settings.
• Discuss the value of a training academy approach to create a sustainable and renewable health system navigation workforce.

Keywords: Outreach Programs, Collaboration

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.