Peer Outreach Workers Can Engage Hard To Reach Populations in Medical Care

Women of color have been underserved in HIV/AIDS care. Systemic neglect of women's health issues, lack of access to care and other barriers has led to an increase in HIV rates and AIDS-related mortality. Central Brooklyn is an epicenter of the epidemic in the US. To address access and barriers, the HRSA-funded Peer Outreach Worker Engagement and Retention (POWER) Project uses peer outreach workers (peers) paired with case managers to engage and retain HIV+ women of color in medical care. Peers are paid staff with HIV who are part of the clinical team. Peers meet potential clients in their homes or in public venues, escort clients, and serve as role models. In implementing POWER, staff have hired, trained, and deployed peers, all of whom are still working one year later. Two focus groups, one each with peers and case managers revealed peers' needs to be professionals, integrated into the professional team, and case management support for peers' outreach work. Initial qualitative field data show the benefit of the peers' work in attracting HIV+ into care. Complex data collection tools to measure self-assessed health, barriers to care, resources (time and labor), and health outcomes (CD4, and Viral Load counts) are successfully administered by peers due to extensive training. Thus, people with low literacy levels can be trained to use tools at above their reading level. Quantitative data collection began in November 2010 (ending 2014) will later demonstrate peers' impact on health outcomes and resources to produce those outcomes.