All Grantee Conference CallAugust 13, 2001 – 10:30am
Participants: Michael Tarter, Sandi Dugan, Yolanda Cantu, Veronica Harding, Kari Maier, Marisa Olivares, Bob Smith, Carol Pyle, Betty Duran, David Barney, Mari Zuniga, Alisa Olshefsky, Ken Burton, Steve Trujillo, Tony Chavez, Kendall Carnie, Kurt Organista, Ledia Martinez, Barbara Aranda-Naranjo, Rosana Scolari, Saleem Ahmad, Sudhir Vallamkondu, Tim Brittingham
Valley AIDS CouncilMarissa advised that Carol is continuing with retro data collection and has completed about half of the data collection. Also collecting new SPNS client data. Carol, the profiler, will be leaving in September for 5-8 weeks on temporary medical leave. Data entry specialist (Gina Holt) will be responsible for collection and entry. Tomorrow will see new client for Brownsville CHC. Plan to initiate more aggressive approach to intake at VAC. Encouraging participation at SPNS collaborating partner sites. Contracts sent out last week. Bob advised they are the AETC subcontractor for Oklahoma and Texas, expect AETC visit on August 15th. US/Mexico Border Heath Association wants to do cross border training. Person he spoke with stated that they were not familiar with this SPNS initiative. Have a training scheduled this fall with 25 Mexico professionals. UMBHA will start with VAC and work across border. Kari stated that last year they had a sub contract with UMHBA and she was surprised they haven’t heard of this SPNS Initiative. Barbara stated she would invite the director of UMBHA, Rebecca Ramos, to participate in the next conference call. This will allow us to see what each is doing and where our programs intercept. Bob stated that he received a call from White House, Scott Everett, head of the White House Office on AIDS. Scott was surprised that the SPNS projects were funded to provided HIV services along the US/Mexico border. VAC is looking at supplemental border initiatives to develop relationships. Yolanda advised they are laying out a schedule for research interviews this fall. Also looking at data collection and data review. Completing QA manual that will be available at the end of the month.
Tony has recently returned from Title III workshop in DC. Advised they continue to have a steady flow of clients. Soon to be certified for Medicare/Medicaid reimbursement on clients. Because of health related issues, a key staff person, Fredrick Rinehart, has reduced his responsibilities. He is a strong advocate of PWA’s. Negotiating with him for future duties. The project has identified two new HIV-positives. One has enrolled in services, the other is undocumented. Continue to inventory program and trouble shoot problems. Interviewing for two medical assistants this week, and a SW supervisor.
Camino de Vida Center for HIVVeronica advised AETC person out until November. Lucy Springer of Mt. Plains AETC is willing to work with physicians on training. Needs assessments were sent to providers, but with poor returns. Kari wants to improve returns on needs assessments. Will contact providers to get on their agenda and share information regarding training available through AETC. Working on renewing CDC contract for year two. Collaborating with another community based organization, Family Youth Inc, as a needle exchange site. Project wants to provide testing on sex workers. Sex workers stated some were getting used needles from dumpsters. Camino de Vida wants to start utilizing group contact sheet. Will contact promoters for supplying the needles. Working with Joáo and local bars to identify potential HIV positives. Mari asked what constitutes a group. Her project is using 10. She also asked what are others using as a cut off? Steve from Arizona said that it depends on the outreach. If not a controlled situation, it should be done as a group. Can vary from 3-10 persons. Other efforts like at health fair, will be classified as a group.
Steve spoke with CDC on issues related to Spanish training for promotores on HIV counseling and testing. Currently, there are no Spanish trainers at the state level. CDC is willing to accept and certify people as trainers. Arizona will send one person from each county in December to CDC training. Project continues to enroll people from offsite into HIV medical care. Working on completing contract for year two. Betty asked about CDC curriculum. Steve will provide contact information to Evaluation Center for Spanish curriculum. Steve added that that the person being sent from each site will be bilingual; the training is in English, and the curriculum is in Spanish.
Mari is working on human subject submission renewals. Waiting to submit request for modification until the barriers module is complete. Technical note: server is still down, limiting their ability to tabulate numbers. They are working on the analysis for the focus group data. Bi-national collaboration with idiginous population in San Diego is happening. They are interested in starting promotores and will begin training soon. Will share information as it becomes available. Alisa advised they have completed 166 multi- site modules (completed A, B, and C), 45 client satisfactions and quality of life, 1048 individual outreach modules, including 170 group ones (over 10 people). Implementing HIV testing results tracking form with a total of 25 completed to date, two have been HIV positive. Working on modifications to HIV Testing Demographics Module for local use. Tim will be working with Alisa on this form. Rosana is working on subcontracts and collaborating with TB program, which includes Baja and Mexico. Will be increasing HIV testing. Currently, have one person, one day a week. Next week, full time HIV testing will begin. Were able to increase testing with Title III money.
Multi-site
evaluation issues Dr. Barney advised Barriers would be up in English form by Wednesday. By laws for publication committee are posted on the web.
Dissemination Betty - NMAC conference will be in Florida next month. We’ve been approved for a round table. Format similar to Las Cruces. Will provide information both through e-mail and post on website. Betty asked if everyone would have representation at conference? All sites said yes.
CAL will not be available to present.
Rosana’s trip is out of another grant.
Mari said travel budget was tight.
Barbara asked if the university could fund the trip for her?
Mari said no. Barbara asked
about carry over. Rosana said
funds exist for carry-over, but need to know if dissemination travel
can be used from carry-over. Barbara
will talk to Richard and call Rosana back.
Mari asked for date of round table.
Dr. Barney said that the round table would be on Saturday, Sept
15th, at 4pm. Tony
(El Paso) to Barbara…can they use carry over for NMAC trip?
Ledia will contact Tony to discuss.
Betty said that in YR-02, two dissemination efforts have been
proposed: APHA in Atlanta in October, and the US Conference On AIDS
in September. Steve reminded projects that we all have budges
for dissemination and suggested that each think about increasing budget
line item in YR-02 for travel. Barbara
said that it sounds fine to her.
HRSA issuesBarbara - next conference call on August 27. Barbara advised that Dr Duke, Acting Administrator,
DHHS, HIV/AIDS Bureau would like to be on next call to observe how we
do things. Barbara requested
that all project directors and evaluators be on the next conference
call. Dr. Duke will be on call from 11:30 to 12:30.
Barbara will review agenda beforehand with David.
Barbara wants to discuss substantive issues.
Betty said that Joáo might be absent due to his vacation, but
Kari will be present. Barbara suggests that we talk about the Barriers
module, so Dr. Duke can get a feel of what it takes for cross-site data
collection. Barbara is looking
at federal level for Spanish translators.
No date set for completed barriers in Spanish. Rosana has a local contact for translation. Barbara wants certified translator, who knows
area, and suggested that Rosana’s contact may be good for second phase
of translation. Barbara asked
if we had contacted Richard Ford. Betty
stated that he was disappointed by the length of time that it took to
compensate his students and was not interested in working with OU.
Barbara said that a certified translator will translate barriers
module, then local projects will look at the translation and incorporate
colloquialisms. The module will
then be returned to certified translator for final edits. Ledia- working with Sandi to coordinate conference call with AETC.
Internal update planned for those in HRSA who could not attend
the DC meeting. Other
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