CISWH Project Resources

Purpose of this toolkit: to support organizations and communities who work with peers to effectively engage and retain PLWHA in care and treatment.

Primary audiences: directors/managers, supervisors of social services, clinic managers and medical directors, nurses and case managers, state and county health officials in charge of HIV program dollars, planning councils, consumer advisory committees and anyone interested in building, enhancing or incorporating peers into a program

Additional uses: Organizations can review and select relevant sections based on their program’s needs and use the tools and resources available

Curriculo en español
Purpose of this toolkit: to support the training of HIV-positive peers who work to engage and retain people living with HIV in health care.

Primary audiences: experienced trainers and training organizations who can use this toolkit to design, enhance or refine their own training of peers.

Additional uses: Peer supervisors or program directors can use this toolkit to plan a peer training program for newly hired peers or provide continuing education for existing peers.

For an additional 5-day peer training curriculum from the MAI SPNS project, which builds on this toolkit:
Preparing Peers for Success: Peer Core Competency Training for Engaging Out-of-Care or Newly Diagnosed People Living with HIV in Care and Treatment

This paper presents early evaluation results of A Kaleidoscope of Care, a cross-disciplinary curriculum in HIV and substance use, designed to train HIV health care and substance abuse treatment professionals in providing better care to the clients they share in common. The curriculum applies adult learning principles to engage diverse professionals in building skills to promote health and adherence, engagement and retention in care, harm reduction, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Early evaluation of the curriculum indicates that it has enhanced knowledge and built skills in serving HIV-infected substance users among providers from multiple disciplines

Wednesday, November 17 2010 2:00 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. ETPeers living with HIV/AIDS play an essential role in engaging HIV-positive individuals in care and treatment. The unique nature of that role brings with it special considerations when integrating peers as part of the health care team. This Webcast helps participants learn to identify peer roles and responsibilities, develop training and supervision systems, and monitor and evaluate peer contributions to HIV services.

This article was published in the Journal of Disability Policy Studies in 2006. The article presents the results of a series of focus groups with people with disabilities, in which a cross-disability, lifespan perspective of disability was used.

This article was published in the Journal of Disability Policy Studies in 2006. The purpose of this article is to provide preliminary data about the results of a comprehensive survey of providers regarding their perceptions of access to health care for people with a broad range of disabilities.

This article was published in AIDS Patient Care and STDs in 2007.  This paper examines factors associated with engaging socially marginalized HIV-positive persons in primary care using interview and chart review data from 984 clients presenting for services at 10 agencies participating in a multisite demonstration project.

This article appeared in AIDS Patient Care and STDs in 2007. This qualitative study examined the process by which persons living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) engage in primary HIV medical care for treatment.

Through its Targeted HIV Outreach and Intervention Model Development (Outreach Initiative), the Health Resources and Services Administration’s Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) program funded ten demonstration sites to implement and evaluate strategies to engage and retain underserved populations living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in HIV primary medical care. This paper describes the study design and methods used to implement and evaluate this large multisite initiative. 

This article appeared in AIDS Patient Care and STDs Sept. 1, 2007. It describes a qualitative study that investigated the process of engagement in HIV medical care from the perspective of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA).