Expanding Access: Bridging Gaps in HIV Prevention for Priority Populations in Sacramento County - Sacramento County Department of Health Services, Division of Public Health, is located in a priority Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) jurisdiction. As a current recipient of PS20-2010 Component C funding, the Sacramento County Sexual Health Clinic (SHC) has been providing high quality HIV/STI care and treatment services to uninsured and underinsured residents since opening its doors in 2019. To address the HIV/STI syndemics among young gay and bisexual men of color, the SHC plans to: a) expand and strengthen its existing clinical infrastructure and improve service delivery and patient engagement / re-engagement to care efforts to facilitate improved patient outcomes, and b) by expanding our outreach and linkage to care efforts, we plan to continue to foster relationships with our current strategic partners, and form new partnerships and community collaborations in support of this project. Specifically, the SHC will hire an additional Community Health Worker to assist with engagement and linkage for People Living with HIV (PLWH); a Communicable Disease Investigator to enhance partner service activities and carryout surveillance informed patient retracing to identify PLWH who are out of care; and a Community Liaison to build critical partnerships with community agencies to access priority populations. Additionally, we will expand our clinic services to address existing gaps, by providing anal cancer screenings to 15% of clients identifying as MSM in year 1, and by providing moderate and high intensity STI Behavioral Counseling for those testing positive for HIV, GC, CT, and/or Syphilis. By expanding our outreach and linkage to care efforts with audiences who continue to be disparately impacted by HIV/STIs, including MSM of color and Black/African American women, through strategic community partnerships and culturally appropriate, tailored, evidenced-based interventions, we expect to increase identification of new HIV/STI infections and of persons with HIV who are out of care or not virally suppressed; improve patient participation in HIV/STI clinical services; increase patient uptake and maintenance of PrEP (increasing the # of people on PrEP by 15% in year 1); increase rapid linkage of newly diagnosed HIV patients to care; improve viral suppression among patients receiving HIV care; and decrease HIV/STI disparities within our patient population. All of this will be accomplished by adopting a whole-person approach to HIV prevention and care, building meaningful engagements with our priority populations, and making quality improvement a key focus of our SHC (by completing at least 1 data driven QI project in year 1).
