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The Miriam Hospital
164 Summit Avenue
Providence, Rhode Island 02906

Timothy P. Flanigan, MD
Principle Investigator
Telephone: (401) 793-7152
Fax: (401) 793-7447

E-mail: Tflanigan@Lifespan.org

 

None.
Project Summary

The overarching goal of this demonstration project is to enhance existing HIV counseling and testing services in the jail setting, and augment linkage to health care for HIV-positive persons in Southeastern New England transitioning to the community after release from jail. This will encompass linkage to HIV primary care, as well as mental health and substance abuse treatment, dentistry, and ophthalmology. Our group from The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University/The Miriam Hospital is ideally suited to implement this project. There is an excellent track record of program evaluation, data collection and collaboration with centralized evaluation centers, as well as dissemination of project results. The specific goals of this project are:

1) To enhance the ability of jail facilities in Rhode Island (RI) and Bristol County, Massachusetts (MA) to promptly identify HIV-infected individuals;
2) To determine the medical and social needs of HIV-infected jail detainees in RI and Bristol County, MA;

3) To expeditiously link HIV-infected jail detainees in RI and Bristol County, MA to HIV primary care and other medical and social services in the community upon
release;

4) To evaluate the effectiveness of the program in identifying HIV infected jail detainees and linking them to care and necessary services; and

5) To disseminate findings of the program evaluation to correctional, public health, medical, and policy-making audiences via various avenues.

This initiative will be implemented in two jail settings, one in Rhode Island and one in Southeastern Massachusetts; these are communities which are heavily impacted by substance use and health disparities. Although health care services exist for hard to reach populations, programs focused on the unique needs of individuals being released from jail are lacking. Working together with the Adult Correctional Institute in RI, the Bristol County Sheriff's Office in MA, Ryan White Title II funded programs, and community providers, investigators will implement and evaluate a model program that will help link a disenfranchised population to available resources. The ecological model of health behavior will guide the development of this intervention. The first six months will be devoted to start up activities, during which intervention and evaluation protocols will be developed in conjunction with HRSA and the Evaluation Center, staff will be trained, and IRB and OHRP approval will be secured. Then, Reintegration Case Workers will work with participants in jail, as well as in the community after release, to meet the goals of individualized service plans that will focus on linkage to care as well as decreasing HIV risk behaviors. The program evaluation will include an analysis of process and outcome variables on both the institutional and individual level. Findings will be disseminated in collaboration with HRSA program officials and the Evaluation Center.