Project Title:
Address:
Contact:
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Project Overview:
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Demonstration Model of Innovations in Prisoner Release
AIDS Care Group
2304 Edgmont Avenue
Chester, Pennsylvania 19013
Howell Ira Strauss, DMD
Phone: 610-389-2301;
Fax: 610-872-9103
1. Summary of Intervention
The AIDS Care Group will initiate a Demonstration Model of Innovations in Prisoner Release and will utilize deployed case management, outreach, transportation, food, shelter, phone cards, and clothing to insure for each targeted client appropriate and timely linkages into clinical care and social services; seamless reintegration into the community; adherence to HIV medical care; and commitment to risk and harm reduction behaviors. Within 4 months current staff with considerable experience in prison systems, HIV medical care, case management, psychiatry, psychosocial services, and HIV education, counseling and testing will coordinate services with five Pennsylvania county jails to reach prisoners before discharge and to effectively plan for and carry out comprehensive discharge and reintegration activities.
2. Target Population
Five-hundred adults living with or at-risk for HIV disease and serving sentences in the county jails of Dauphin, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Bucks Counties are targeted. These counties have 14.6% of Pennsylvania's county jail inmate total; and 13.2% of the state's reported AIDS cases. The demographics of the inmate population are 92% male and 8% female; 65% African American; 15% Latino(a); 20% Caucasian. The group is adult; living below poverty levels; and dependent on Ryan White CARE Act and other publicly funded agencies to address medical care and social service needs.
3. Goal and Objectives:
Goal: Develop an innovative and replicable model of HIV education and services within five Pennsylvania county jails, and make discharge planning and reintegration identifiable and structured programs that address all current barriers to clinical and social services for incarcerated and newly discharged HIV positive adults.
Objectives:
1. Link clinical and social service providers of the AIDS Care Group of Chester, Delaware County, Pennsylvania to other medical and social service providers and county jails in five urban and rural counties of Pennsylvania.
2. Provide education to a total of 500 inmates yearly to help remove disease stigma and create opportunities for early identification and management of HIV disease.
3. Insure appropriate and timely discharge planning to 100 discharged inmates living with HIV disease each year for four years.
4. Utilize enhancements including transportation, food, shelter, clothing, and phone cards to insure success with reintegration activities and help insure timely access and adherence to primary medical care, substance abuse treatment, mental health care, and legal and social services.
5. Develop and document a basis for sustainability of the project.
6. Work with the national evaluation center to insure strength of data collection and commitment to quality outcomes for review and replicability of the project.
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