Online Program

Oral

The three papers to be presented during this session, Violence & Viruses, were all funded by the Health Resources and Services Administrative (HRSA) Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Program Enhancing Access to and Retention in Quality HIV/AIDS Care for Women of Color Initiative. This initiative was a response to recognition that while Women of Color (WOC), at the time of the initiative, accounted for one third of the female U.S. population they accounted for about 84% of the estimated number of women living with AIDS. The WOC Initiative was a multisite demonstration and evaluation of HIV delivery interventions and 11 demonstration sites across the country were funded for up to 5 years to design, implement, and evaluate innovative methods of HIV care delivery to Women of Color. Interventions included community-based outreach, patient education, intensive case management, patient navigation, and nurse guide strategies that were intended to promote access to and retention in care. While each of the demonstration sites had a local evaluation, there was also a national Evaluation and Technical Assistance Center, ETAC, housed at Albert Einstein College of Medicine that worked with the demonstration sites to support the initiative and help develop a set of standardized surveys and chart abstraction forms that could be used to address the effectiveness of the various strategies for improving access to and retention in care. The three papers use a mix of multi-site data and local evaluation data to assess different perspectives on this initiative. The paper by Eastwood and colleagues uses multi-site data to examine different age cohorts to better understand the relationship between age and retention in care. The paper by Ryerson Espino and colleagues uses multi-site and local evaluation data to examine varying ways of assessing intimate partner violence and the effect this has on viral suppression. Finally the paper by Quinlivan and associates uses local data, and a theory based intervention, to assess a unique intervention using a nurse guide to link and sustain WOC in HIV care.

Session Objectives: Describe the effect of age on retention in HIV/AIDS care; Differentiate varying ways of assessing Intimate Partner Violence; and Explain the role and effectiveness of a nurse guide in linking Women of Color to care.

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH) , Masters Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES)