Friday, June 9, 2023
6/9/2023
Terros Health proposes the HIV Health Navigation Project which will serve ethnic minority adults, with a particular focus amongst Black/African American and Latino identifying men who have sex with men (MSM), Latina and African American identifying women who are at risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS, intravenous drug users (IDU). Services will be provided in Maricopa County, Arizona. The purpose is to improve the health outcomes of the focus populations. The project will use a Community Health Worker (CHW) model in communities where the focus populations live to implement public messaging and expedite health services to increase and promote HIV testing, substance use treatment, and navigation services. Access to care will be increased through coordinated and strategic internal and external procedures and advocacy related to health disparities. This will be done through the integration of the CHW model and the Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) model. This approach puts the patient at the center of their care and promotes active engagement with a Care Coordination team who supports a personalized plan for the participant to meet their health care goals. Terros Health identified the focus populations based on the most recent HIV/AIDS epidemiological surveillance data which captures prevalence and incidence rates across the state of Arizona. According to the 2018 Arizona HIV Surveillance Annual Report, HIV affects ethnic minorities at a disproportionate rate compared to their White counterparts. In 2017 the count of people in Arizona who were living with HIV/AIDS was 18,190. The number of new diagnoses in 2017 was 768. Groups disproportionately affected by HIV/AIDS included racial/ethnic minorities and men who have sex with men (MSM). MSM accounted for 61.5% of all new diagnoses in Arizona and 71.8% of all new diagnoses among Males. Non-Hispanic Blacks had the highest incident rates in the state at 36.3 per 100,000 individuals. Of the 768 incidents across the state of Arizona, 526 (73.11%) were diagnosed in Maricopa County. Of those 526 new HIV/AIDS diagnoses, Non-Hispanic Blacks accounted for 103 new diagnoses while Hispanics made up 163 of the new occurrences. While Non-Hispanic Blacks recorded lower incident rates across the county and state, the incident rate for Non-Hispanic Blacks increased from 22 per 100,000 individuals to 36.3 per 100,000 individuals from 2010-2017. Black/African American women also faced disproportionate incident rates at 23.3 per 100,000 individuals--nearly 4x higher than any other racial/ethnic group in the state. Upon further review, MSM accounted for 341 of the total HIV/AIDS incidents in Maricopa County and MSM who are also Intravenous Drug Users (IDU) accounted for 24 or 3.1% of total new HIV/AIDS incidents. This represents 47.5% or nearly half of the total new diagnoses recorded in Arizona in 2017. The project activities will include: 1) weekly street outreach to engage the focus populations; 2) public messaging and awareness campaigns; 3) community partnerships with a variety of community sectors; 4) navigation services available to project participants to expedite healthcare services related to HIV and substance misuse; and 4) training to healthcare providers.
HHS’ Tracking Accountability in Government Grants System (TAGGS) website provides access to detailed descriptions of grants, loans, aggregated direct payments and other types of financial assistance awarded by the HHS Operating Divisions (OPDIVs) and the Office of the Secretary Staff Divisions (STAFFDIVs).
