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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Amy A. Donovan, PhD¹, Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, PhD¹, and Hazel Wesson, ED². (1) Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics, UCSF in collaboration with AIDS Project of the East Bay, 3333 California Street, Suite 245, Box 0503, San Francisco, CA 94118, (415) 902-9899, amydonovan@alum.wellesley.edu, (2) AIDS Project of the East Bay, 1755 Broadway, 5th Floor, Oakland, CA 94612

Reports from the CDC indicate that young men who have sex with men (MSM) of color are at greater risk for HIV than other populations. The Community Involvement Project (CIP) is a unique collaboration of HIV providers and community-based organizations conducting outreach and testing among high-risk groups including gay, bisexual, and transgender youth of color and commercial sex workers. In this five-year longitudinal study which follows young people from testing into care, new infections are identified as rapid testing is made routine at community activities frequented by young MSMs including poetry slams, balls, parties, outdoor festivals, and local bathhouses. Once identified, positive youth are linked to HIV care in a “clinic without walls,” whereby youth obtain medical care and ancillary services. This web of care, which includes a fully bilingual Spanish speaking team, is a crucial and novel aspect of the intervention reducing youth who are lost to care. The CIP is being evaluated using both qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative methods include interviews with HIV+ and negative youth, focus groups, and a Young Investigators Research Workshop in which young people are trained as ethnographers, mapping social terrain, writing field notes on local venues, and interviewing one another to refine and develop interventions. Quantitative methods include a local and a multi-site quarterly survey to address self-efficacy around medical adherence, knowledge, and behavioral change. Discussion will include results of the preliminary data and discussion of lessons learned about best practices testing and linking HIV+ youth to care.

Learning Objectives:

• To recognize the key venues and social sexual patterns of at risk youth.
• To develope successful research collaborations with at risk youth to refine existing interventions and articulate new ones.
• To Identify more effective ways to encourage HIV testing in areas where HIV stigma persists.
• To describe mechanisms through which young people are successfully retained in clinical care and achieve medical adherence.

Keywords: Adolescent Health, HIV/AIDS

Related Web page: www.YesCenter.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No