As of July 1, 2006, there are over 1 million people living with the HIV virus. 50 thousand of these individuals reside in the County of Los Angeles, one-quarter of whom are likely to be unaware of their infection.
El Centro Del Pueblo's HIV Prevention Program is funded through the County of Los Angeles. Our mission is to support the County in lowering the HIV infection rate by 50%. Our geographical boundary is Service Planning Area (SPA) 4, which covers Central Los Angeles to the Hollywood area. El Centro's Prevention Program consists of three separate components:
Outreach:
Outreach services are provided at strategic locations that our targeted populations hang out. Our current targeted populations are men who have sex with men (MSM), men who have sex with men and are injection drug users (MSM/IDU), heterosexual men who are injection drug users (HMIDU) and women at sexual risk (WSR). Staff provides basic education and prevention services as a way to develop rapport and increase the knowledge about HIV Prevention amongst all targeted risk groups. Staff will conduct a brief verbal assessment of the clients HIV/AIDS prevention knowledge. Clients with improper, little or no knowledge will coninue to be targeted for basic educational services. Promotional items such as educational pamphlets or condoms are offered to encourage healthy living.
Behavior Change:
Clients with proper/general knowledge of HIV prevention will be targeted for recruitment into the Behavior Change Program. The program consists of three separate sessions in which the Staff will educate the client on risk reduction techniques. The goal is to reduce the client's risky (sexual/drug) behavior by at least 10%. The Health Educators will also dispense, discuss and document mateirals to the client (brochures, condoms, bleach kits, etc.). We will continue to follow-up and provide referrals to the clients for a period of 90 days after program completion.
HIV Counseling and Testing:
The HIV Individualized Testing (HIT) Program intends to promote and provide HIV testing immediately, on-demand and in the vicinity in which the client requests it. It's ultimate objective is to increase risk-reduction, promote HIV status awareness and provide links to treatment or other care services. Testing services will be offered to all targeted populations and not limited to those who are enrolled in our Behavior Change Program. Our HIV Testers are teamed with the Behavior Health Educators during outreach to the targeted population in the community.
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