142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

301999
Total Health Partners: A pilot strategy facilitated by Community Health Workers to increase retention in medical care through the integration of training on mental health and wellness, housing, and financial capability

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Abby Charles, MPH , Institute for Public Health Innovation, Washington, DC
Mary Bowman , Institute for Public Health Innovation, Washington, DC
Prince George’s County is home to approximately one-fifth of all people living with HIV in Maryland. According to the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, only 65% of HIV-diagnosed persons were linked to care in 2010 and 37% of HIV-diagnosed persons were retained in care.  Linkage and retention in HIV medical care has been hindered by, among other factors, housing and financial instability and HIV service infrastructure deficiencies.

Total Health Partners (THP) is a pilot intervention designed to assess the impact of Community Health Workers (CHWs) to support HIV-positive individuals in Prince George’s County to engage in HIV medical care. CHWs are integrated into the care team at one community based organization and work with three medical institutions to provide personalized assistance to persons to understand and navigate the sometimes complex health system. CHWs are also trained to co-deliver the “My Health, My Life, My Future” training series: a 15-session series for persons enrolled that promotes mental health and wellness, housing, and financial capability.

The model is designed with an understanding that to affect engagement and retention in HIV care, interventions must help address underlying social factors, which CHWs are well-positioned to do through perspective transformation and building trust-based linkages to non-medical community resources.

Through this presentation IPHI will: (1) Outline the THP CHW model. (2) Describe the training for CHWs to facilitate My Health, My Life, My Future and coordinate retention in care services. (3) Present outcomes from the first graduated cohort of the training series.

Learning Areas:

Implementation of health education strategies, interventions and programs
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
Explain the role of the Community Health Worker (CHW) in a pilot intervention to address retention in medical care Describe the training of the CHWs to facilitate an innovative training series to address social determinants of health

Keyword(s): Community Health Workers and Promoters, HIV Interventions

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I managed multiple individual and structural interventions utilizing Community Health Workers to facilitate utilization of preventative services, linkage to and retention in HIV medical care, and chronic disease management. I am interested in the design of interventions that incorporate the social determinants of health at the core of the implementation strategy in communities.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.