Thursday, November 21, 2024
11/21/2024
Address: 1301 Main Street, Asbury Park, NJ 07712 Project Director: Eric Wuethrich Contact Phone Numbers: 732-962-0135 (Voice) 732-502-5134 (Fax) Email Address: Eric.Wuethrich@vnahg.org Website Address: https://vnahg.org Grant Program Funds Requested: $58,167 FY 2022 RWHAP Part C Capacity Development Program Category: HIV Care Innovation Selected Activity: Community Health Workers No Funding preference requested The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the medical field across the spectrum, raising new challenges each day as well as exacerbating pre-existing gaps from maintaining staffing capacity to patient engagement. In our program these challenges have resulted in a reduction to our Retention in Care, Viral Load Suppression, and Prescription of Antiretroviral Therapy as defined by the HIV Care Continuum. To address these metrics and help raise them to our Part C goals, we are seeking to integrate a Community Health Worker (CHW) into our Ryan White Part C team. The CHW will work directly within the team to regularly identify those patients lost to care, provide data on HIV Care Continuum, CQM measures, as well as facilitate outside referrals. By providing this non-medical support to the team, it will allow our medical support to focus on patient care while providing peer-support to reengage our patient population. The proposed activity of integrating a CHW will both enhance and expand access to high quality HIV primary care services for low-income and underserved people with HIV. The focus populations served by the Ryan White Part C program include undocumented immigrants, recently incarcerated, transgender, heterosexual women, people of color, active and past drug users, and men who have sex with men. The target population for the proposed CHW are any of these patients currently not engaged in care. The integration of a CHW will allow for a reduction of those tasks from clinical and medical support staff freeing more time to allow them to spend with current patients (enhance) as well as more time to see additional patients (expand). Allowing clinical and medical support staff this additional time to engage with patients will result in increased retention in care, viral load suppression, and prescription of antiretroviral therapy.
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).
