Baltimore City Health Department Support and Scale Up for HIV Prevention Services in Sexual Health Clinics CDC-RFA-PS-24-0003 - CDC-RFA-24-0003 Support and Scale Up for HIV Prevention Services in Sexual Health Clinics Project Abstract Summary - Baltimore City Health Department The Baltimore City Health Department’s (BCHD) Sexual Health and Wellness Clinics (SHWCs) currently offer the required services to be eligible for this award and has the experience and required expertise to meet the PS-24-0003 activities articulated in this application. Program activities will be directly implemented by BCHD’s two SHWCs and the HIV/STI prevention program. Our activities during this award will be guided by a commitment to addressing disparities in their broadest sense. Activity A1 will address identified gaps in service by focusing on building capacity to provide immunizations for vaccine-preventable STIs and to ensure that staff undergo additional trainings to sensitively meet the needs of gender diverse and transgender users. Activity A2 will be met by augmenting existing rapid or express STI testing services; improve communication with patients through adoption of an online patient portal; and re-establish rapid diagnostics for curable STIs. Activity A3 will focus attention on developing and implementing a patient feedback system so that the needs of patients and users can be heard and addressed through an iterative process of listening, contemplation, and action. Activity A4 will see the implementation of BCHD’s SHWC’s longstanding commitment to providing an environment of gender affirmation and strengthen systems for HIV PrEP and HIV linkage-to-care and retention-in-care services. Activity B demonstrates our capacity to build and sustain strategic partnership with a combined goal of meeting EHE targets, in B1 we have identified six organizations with whom we will collaborate with to meet the needs of all residents with a focus on people who may become pregnant and be affected by congenital syphilis or perinatal HIV, transgender individuals, and Black same gender loving men. We will use a variety of methods to maximize the productivity of these partnerships including initiating regular meetings during which joint objectives can be established and outcomes measured. In activity B2 we will continue to strengthen and maintain our partnerships with existing local HIV planning groups; this will be complementary to activity B3 wherein we will establish a contract with a contractor to conduct activities to engage with different members of our local communities, gather feedback about BCHD’s SHWC’s services, and utilize the resulting community advisory board (CAB) as a way of communicating ideas back to the communities we serve. The vision is of a bidirectional relationship with our users that ultimately results in better services for the community. Our PS-24-0003 efforts will be strengthened by collaborations with other CDC projects or CDC-funded organizations, as well as non-CDC-affiliated organizations. The senior team, led by Dr. Greenbaum, supported by a team of experienced clinicians and administrators, has the organizational capacity, experience, expertise, and commitment to addressing disparities to successfully build on activities undertaken during PS-20-2010 and deliver the outcomes central to EHE.
