Funded by a federal grant from AIDS United and part of a three-year social innovation cohort research study in collaboration with Johns Hopkins University, The Damien Center’s Linkage to Care (L2C) Program is reaching out to individuals living with HIV and connecting them with the care they need to get and stay healthy. Now in its second year of operation, L2C puts The Damien Center at the forefront of a national movement toward eliminating barriers that keep individuals from getting into and staying in care. The main objective of this grant is to decrease the community viral load by increasing successful transition from diagnosis into treatment and providing the intensive support needed to help clients reengage in and maintain in HIV medical care. To be eligible for L2C, clients must be newly diagnosed and assessed by their Care Coordinator as high-risk for not successfully entering HIV medical care or have been out of HIV medical care for a year or more. At this time, L2C is only available in Region 7. Referrals are to be submitted to Abbe Shapiro, Linkage to Care Program Manager, (317) 632-0123 x263 and ashapiro@damien.org.

By partnering with key agencies in the communities most impacted by HIV, The Damien Center is able to tailor linkage support to clients’ needs in a culturally sensitive manner. Our sub-grantees are Brother’s United, an agency that serves mainly the Black MSM and transgender community; Women in Motion, an agency that serves mainly women of color; and Indiana Latino Institute, an agency that entered the HIV field through this grant with a desire to address the HIV health disparity within their community. L2C Specialists are housed at these community-based offices to help reduce stigma and improve access to care and treatment. The program also employs a youth-focused Linkage Specialist based at The Damien Center. Clients are enrolled in the program for 18 months and work with both an L2C Specialist and a Care Coordinator. In its first year, the program saw a 93% viral load decrease for clients whose lab data was available both at baseline and three to six months post-enrollment. Fifty-eight clients enrolled in the program during its first year. Thus far this program has been highly effective in both making clients healthier and ultimately reducing their risk of transmitting HIV to others, two of the agency’s overall strategic goals.

This article comes from Share Spot at the AETC NRC website
http://aidsetc.org/blog/incare-campaign-keeping-patients-care-and-good-health 

by Michael Hager, MPH, MA, Technical Assistance and Dissemination Manager at the National Quality Center
March 26, 2014

The in+care Campaign is a multi-year effort managed by the National Quality Center and sponsored by the Health Resources Services Administration HIV/AIDS Bureau. It is designed to bring together local, regional and national organizations that are focused on improving patient retention in HIV care. in+care kicked off in October 2011 and has enrolled more than 700 individual HIV providers representing more than 500 provider organizations, including Ryan White grantees and subgrantees of all Parts funding. Based on the patients served by these HIV providers, the in+care Campaign has the power to reach more than 375,000 people living with HIV (best effort at de-duplication), which is more than 35% of the US HIV epidemic.

Wondering how you can take action based on the National HIV/AIDS Strategy? The in+care Campaign is a great place to start! It contains several activities to engage stakeholders from various backgrounds related to HIV care. Webinars, newsletters and website resources serve as a means of connecting these stakeholder groups and sharing information and strategies across the vast area of our country. Retention and viral suppression performance measures are submitted by participants every other month and are used to show the steady improvement in patient retention and viral suppression over time. Each Campaign participant is assigned a quality coach to help design, implement, and evaluate improvement strategies targeting opportunities to help achieve greater patient retention and viral suppression.Who doesn’t like free help? Visit www.incarecampaign.org for more information! Also, see the TARGET Center for a collection of 21 in+carewebcasts held over the past several years.

Since 2011, in+care staff has compiled a group of special reports based on submissions made to the in+careCampaign. Some of these reports compare performance between different types of providers in different settings and others catalogue the types of retention and viral suppression quality improvement strategies being implemented across the US in conjunction with the in+care Campaign. While the Campaign was not designed to identify which retention or viral suppression quality improvement strategies are most promising, it is a wonderful vehicle for sharing successes and disseminating evidence-based interventions throughout the national Ryan White provider community.

If you have any questions about this initiative or want to know how you can get involved, contact Michael Hager anytime at Michael@NationalQualityCenter.org ! Add in+care Campaign services to your retention in care toolbox, and continue to refer to the AETC Engagement in Care Toolkit for additional resources.

Are you ready to make one meal matter? During Dining Out for life 2014, area restaurants will donate 25-100% of your bill to support The Damien Center and hundreds of people living with HIV/AIDS right here in our community. 

Supporting the fight against AIDS is as easy as grabbing a bit to eat. 

The generosity of the restaurant participants coupled with your additional donation will make a very real difference in the lives of thousands of men, women, and children throughout the region living with HIV and AIDS.

Click here to See a List of Participating Restaurants

As a program of Eskenazi Health, the MATEC program will be moving to the new hospital campus. Our move date has been set for December 5th. In preparation for the move, the MATEC office will be closed the week of December 2nd. MATEC will have a new address and new phone numbers. Our new contact information will be released in a “Change of Address” e-mail as soon as the information is available to us.

In other news, the 2014 HIV/STD Conference is off to a great start! We are pleased to announce a new conference partner, the Center for the Center for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Research.  Under the leadership of Professors Gregory Zimet and Dennis Fortenberry of the Department of Pediatrics, the Center for Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Research at IUPUI fosters cohesion and collaboration among investigators pursuing HPV-related research. This group of scholars represents a growing synergy between the disciplines of medicine, health marketing, psychology, and public health and capitalizes on IUPUI’s remarkable culture of collaborative and interdisciplinary research, establishing a world-class center for HPV research, research training, and research translation.  We are excited to have them as a partner.  We are also pleased to announce a few of the speakers and topics that we have confirmed for the 2014 conference:

Pelvic Inflammatory Disease (PID) – Toni Darville, MD

Pre-Conception Care HIV Infected Patients – Judy Levison, MD

Systemic Manifestations of Syphilis in HIV Patients – Charles Hicks, MD

Stigma – Joe Burrage, PhD, RN, FAAN

Transgender Issues – Kristin Keglovitz Baker, PA

Stay tuned for more information about the conference and our move!

Yours Truly,

MATEC Indiana