HRSA SPNS Grantee Conference Call

September 10, 2001 @ 10:30 am

 

 

Participant Roll Call:

Centro de Evaluación; David Barney, Betty Duran, Tim Brittingham, Saleem, Sudhir.

Arizona: Ken Burton, Steve Trujillo, Tony Estrada.

California: Rosana Scolari, Maria Zuniga, Alisa

El Paso: John Wiebe, Joaqin

New Mexico: Kari Maier, Veronica Harding, Joao Battista

Harlingen: Marisa Olivarez, Sandi Duggan.

HRSA: Barbara Aranda-Naranjo, Robyn Schulhof

Berkeley: Mike Tarter.

 

Project Reports:

 

Arizona

 

Trainings:   Outreach training Mariposa Health Center/Platicamos Salud.  Enrique Gomez conducted an outreach field outing to locations where individuals who may be at high risk for HIV congregate in Nogales, AZ-Sonora.  The field outing for the promotoras to community gatekeepers is being rescheduled.

 

AZ AIDS ETC scheduled two trainings for dentists in Nogales and Sierra Vista for October 18th.  Training will be conducted by the faculty of the UCLA ETC.  The ETC will begin in November to schedule 1-hour trainings at Sunset Clinics in Yuma once a month.

 

Dr. Carmichael is scheduled to conduct CME training for physicians and health care professionals in Cochise County on September 25th.    

 

Out Reach Activities:  Yuma County – Yuma County Health Department, Sunset Clinics and Puentes de Amistad are preparing for outreach activities for September 16th.  Activities are planned for the weekend the 14th and 15th of September in conjunction with Mexican Independence Day.  Outreach to the towns of Wellton and Dateland will occur on September 10th.  Outreach is also occurring at Crossroads (rehab. ctr.) and the county jail.

 

Sunset Clinic has identified a nurse who will provide care to HIV/ AIDS patients.  The nurse will be scheduled to come to the SIA for training.  Yuma is also getting an ID physician.

 

Santa Cruz County – Mariposa Health Center has added 12 volunteer HIV educators to their outreach team.  Outreach continues to occur health fairs, SEABHC SA groups, teen court, detention centers adolescent/adults, truck stops.  Events for World AIDS Day are being organized by the Mariposa Clinic and community agencies/organizations.

 

Cochise County – Steve Trujillo met with Ginger Ryan, CEO of the Chiricahua Community Health Center to discuss the 2nd year contract and their participation in the project.  The medical director of the of the clinic was discharged and CCHC is in the process of finding a new medical director.  In the interim Dr. Carmichael will conduct clinics at the CCHC.

 

Cochise County Health Department has expanded their outreach activities to their sites in Douglas, Sierra Vista, Benson, and Wilcox.  They are also in the county jail.  Events are scheduled for World AIDS Day and National Testing Day.

 

ADHS Funds:  Arizona Department Health Services Judy Norton Interim Acting Chief provided information on the approved activities for the Congressional Black Caucus Initiative funds at the September 7th meeting.  Plan of how these funds will be used by the project are due to the ADHS office by October 15th.  One piece of the plan is to identify 3 individuals, one from each county to attend the CDC TOT for counseling and testing.  These individuals will be bilingual and bicultural.

 

Dissemination Activities: Round table presentation at the USCA conference in Miami.       

 

Project Enrollment:  Four post SPNS patients have been enrolled.

 

Local Evaluation:  Local data continues to be received by the evaluation team.  Mariposa Clinic/Platicamos Salud has done six radio spots that have reached approximately 45,000 individuals.  Barbara asked Steve to provide HRSA with a copy of one radio ad for their information.

       

California

 

·        Program and evaluation site visits with partners in progress.

Friday September 7 - went to Imperial Valley.  Talked about what new things about HIV primary care have been implemented and what are the new issues that have arisen.  Shows the challenges faced by a small rural community clinic.  Barbara (HRSA) asked what framework is being used to capture these changes as project is implemented in the community?  Mari advised they are using a diagram that depicts barriers faced by clients and issues faced by service providers.  They have asked collaborators to identify barriers, services, and type of personnel before SPNS money.  Barbara advised that there is a HRSA website that provides information on how other grantees have reported “lessons learned.”  Discussion on value of process evaluation, projects were encouraged to document all efforts undertaken that lead to full implementation of SPNS project and to report their findings as lesson learned.

 

·        Data Collection Update: current outreach and multi site module numbers

·        1294 Outreach Contacts

·        196 Module A completed

·        196 Module B completed

·        195 Module D completed

·        55 Module E

·        41 Module G

·        60 HIV-positive clients enrolled in SPNS Project

·        136 non-HIV positive contacts through HIV testing

·        Preparation for Miami conference

·        Preparation for local HIV/AIDS Border conference in November

 

El Paso

 

John Wiebe – reported that baseline data collection continues.  A network connection has been established from the clinic.  The network connection has accelerated their ability to complete data entry.  Plan to have data entry caught up with by the end of this week.  The El Paso project has submitted an abstract in conjunction with the South Texas project for the Border Health Conference sponsored by the University of Texas – Pan American.  Staff from El Paso attended a site visit with AETC staff and identified training needs.  They plan to get nurses trained in crisis and suicide prevention.  They also want nurses trained to introduce mental health services in a culturally sensitive manner.  Next step would be sending nurses to AETC and become AIDS certified.  Have begun internships, Vicky Longoria (intern) is working with their LMSW-ACP, Isabelle Robles, in handling mental health issues. 

       

New Mexico

 

Veronica – reported outreach efforts had resulted in 114 HIV tests.  In FY 02 have tested 24 individuals with a 62% rate of return for test results.  They have adopted group contact card (modified Arizona’s form).  In order to strengthen outreach efforts, they will be meeting with another CBO and NMDOH to see how the SPNS project can work within their needle exchange program. 

 

CHC’s – Contracts has been completed and have met with one CHC.  They are developing a standard reporting form for all clinic visits.

 

Promotores – working with other agencies to collaborate on local promotoras efforts: Southern AHEC, Ben Archer Clinic, and Farm Workers Justice Fund.

 

Harlingen

      An Evaluation Planning Session with/ VAC Project Data Collection Staff in Harlingen took place on September 4, 2001 for the purpose of discussing:

Data Collection Activities and Processes

Problems/Concerns

Review of Local Evaluation Data Set

Local Evaluation Form and Local ACCESS Database

 

A similar evaluation planning session will take place in Eagle Pass, estimated date October 2001.

 

      A local evaluation Project Milestone/Deliverable was accomplished August 2001.  The local evaluation team developed a Project Data and Quality Assurance Procedures Manual that will be shared with the national evaluators, HRSA Project officer and Project partner agencies.

 

      The local evaluators are building a chronology around positive and negative critical events with regard to data collection and evaluation activities, mainly information and lessons learned derived via qualitative interviews with Project partner staff.  The Data and Evaluation Critical Events Chronology will detail YR 1 implementation phase and continue throughout the Project duration.

 

 

Multi-site evaluation issues:

a.  Spanish Barriers Module – Betty advised that everyone has been provided a copy of the Barriers Module in Spanish for review and comment.  Asked grantees attending NMAC conference to meet on Saturday at 11:00 am in Miami to finalize the Spanish Barriers Module.  All grantees agreed to meet.

 

b.  Submission of conference and meeting information for posting on web page – this task has been assigned to Saleem who will be in contact with all grantees to obtain updates.

       

c.  New web format has been posted on the Centro de Evaluación web page.  Grantees were asked to review the page and provide feedback to Tim and Sudhir.

 

d.  Change Form track closed cases?  What constitutes a “closed case?”  David advised that a change form will be developed by grantees during the next grantees meeting in January 2002.  At that time we will also define what is a closed case.

 

e.  Recommended Administration of Time Sequenced Modules:  Need clarification  (VAC)

David advised that the time sequence has not changed, but emphasized that times of administration of client quality of life is very important, therefore projects should follow the protocol guidelines (within 4 weeks of intake and at 60-90 days after intake).

 

f.  Question regarding how to handle change in questions where module originally had check only one and now has check all that apply (now dichotomous variable for each, e.g. Race) (SY) David advised that due to TELEform and the manner in which it handles variables, it became necessary to have a response to each item.  Essentially clients still check off all that apply but in the format of answering each variable under “RACE.”  The variable for income has not changed and allows for clients to report more than one source of income.  Michael asked what is being used to indicate missing data?  David advised the number “9” is used to code for missing data.  Mari advised they have attempted to add more than one source of income, which was declined by the form.  David stated this could be a TELEform problem, he will check and report back to Mari.

 

 

Dissemination Issues:

a.  Review of presentation protocol for National AIDS Conference Presentation 9/15/01 @ 4 pm       - Miami, Florida.  Persons attending are:  Arizona – Ken & Steve; New Mexico – Veronica, Kari, & Joao; El Paso – Toni, John, & Jessica; and VAC will not be represented.  HRSA representative is Angela Powel or the HRSA Deputy Director (Deborah).

 

 

HRSA Issues:  Betty advised the grantees that our next projects meeting is scheduled for January 2002.  She has been informed by Barbara Aranda-Naranjo that HRSA staff have received a new directive regarding staff travel.  The new directive limits staff travel to one person to participate in grantee meetings.   Past involvement of Barbara, Robyn, and Ledia has been quite beneficial to the projects.  In order to continue active participation by the three HRSA staff, Betty asked grantees if they would be willing to have the next scheduled meeting in Washington DC versus in San Diego.  John Wiebe stated that grantees had agreed to rotate the grantee meeting to various project sites in order to allow other grantees to observe what was being implemented by each grantee, he asked if this would occur in the future.  Betty advised that grantees may decide in the future to select a different meeting site but for January 2002 we need to make a decision in order to allow for planning.  Grantees all agreed to scheduling the meeting in Washington DC.  Barbara thanked grantees for the hard efforts and cooperation.

 

Barbara advised that a graduate student at HRSA is working on a survey instrument for promotoras.  She will be contacting those grantees working with promotoras.  She also advised that on November 12-14, 2001 is the annual Nurses in AIDS Care Conference in Minneapolis, MN.  Information about the conference may be found at http://www.anacmet.org/.  She recommended that project nurses attend. 

 

Other:  NONE

 

Next Conference Call:  September 24, 2001 @ 10:30 am

Call:  1-865-525-4116 Participant Code:  702195

 

Conference Call 9/10/01 @ 10:30 am

Call:  1-865-525-4116    Participant Code:  702195

Only 16 lines available: 2-lines for VAC, El Paso, NM, CA, AZ & HRSA; 1 line - UC Berkeley; 2 lines Centro de Evaluación; and 1 line The Measurement Group