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

Abstract #117826

Enbal Shacham, MEd¹, Michael Reece, PhD, MPH¹, and Tania Basta, MPH². (1) Department of Applied Health Science, Indiana University, HPER Building 116, 1025 E. Seventh Street, Bloomington, IN 47405-7109, 812-855-0068, eshacham@indiana.edu, (2) Department of Health Promotion and Behavior, The University of Georgia, 300 River Road, Athens, GA 30602

Background: An individual's perceptions of the barriers to accessing care have been found to have associations with one's likelihood of remaining engaged with the HIV care continuum. However, little research has been conducted to explore the extent to which an individual's perceptions of barriers to care have associations with psychological distress. Methods: Data were collected from 452 individuals who were seeking care at an HIV-focused mental health agency in the Southeastern United States. Data were analyzed to explore the extent to which perceptions of barriers to care were associated with psychological distress and their intentions to remain engaged with care services following enrollment. Findings: Those presenting for care with increased levels of perceived barriers also presented with elevated symptoms of depression, hostility, and paranoid ideation (p<.05). Additionally, those with increased levels of perceived barriers were less likely to endorse the likelihood of their continued engagement with the care system (p < .05) and perceived that the benefits of remaining in care were less (p < .05). Conclusions: It appears that those with increased levels of barriers to care may in fact also have levels of psychological distress that either share associations with, or compound, other factors that challenge their retention in care. It may be important to strengthen linkages between mental health providers and other care agencies in order to respond to the broad issues that impact care retention.

Learning Objectives:

• Participants will be able to identify relations between perceived barriers to care engagement and psychological distress.
• Participants will better understand the relations between psychological distress and perceived benefits of HIV-related care.
• Participants will be able to identify the role of mental health services with regard to supporting engagement and retention into other forms of care.

Keywords: Mental Health Care, HIV/AIDS

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.