SPNS/Fax: An Electronic Report from HRSA/HAB's SPNS Cooperative Agreements:
Volume 2, Issue 4 (February 21, 1997)

Information dissemination from 27 Innovative Models of HIV Care projects funded as Special Projects of National Significance by the HIV/AIDS Bureau (HAB) of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).

Introduction

Welcome to SPNS/Fax: An Electronic Report from HRSA/HAB's SPNS Cooperative Agreements. In each issue of SPNS/Fax, we will highlight findings from the HRSA Special Projects of National Significance Program Cooperative Agreements. The projects have been funded to develop innovative models of HIV/AIDS care. SPNS/Fax reports are distributed every two weeks by fax machine to all subscribers. All issues of SPNS/Fax are also available at this Web site. Due to slight differences in the media, issues distributed by fax machine may appear slightly different from those posted on this Web site, but the content is identical.

Project Salud Improves South Texas HIV Service Delivery Systems Through System Assessment and Change

The University of Texas Health Science Center's "Salud y Unidad en la familia" project (Project Salud) focuses on HIV-positive women, children, and their family members. Project Salud is unique in focusing not only on HIV-positive clients in its catchment areas, but also on attending to the needs of the non-infected, but significantly affected, family members of the HIV-positive clients. The project's target populations reside in the geographically expansive, ethnically diverse, and economically disadvantaged regions of South Texas, including San Antonio, Corpus Christi and the lower Rio Grande Valley, and the huge expanse of rural and frontier-rural towns along the Texas-Mexico border. The delivery of HIV services to these areas is affected by the long distances between potential clients and care providers, high poverty levels (up to 41 percent in certain areas), shrinking resources, an often migratory population in border areas, and an ever-increasing number of clients in need of services.

Project Salud is a collaborative effort among the Texas Department of Protective and Regulatory Services (TDPRS) and four Ryan White CARE Act service providers who have been vital to the HIV/AIDS service delivery system in South Texas. One key component of this collaboration is the maintenance of a Family Preservation Council (FPC), which is comprised of the TDPRS, the CARE Act service delivery staff, HIV-positive clients and affected family members, public health officers, community leaders, and volunteers. The FPC provides guidance and leadership to the participating agencies; serves as a forum for the sharing of ideas, experiences, and resources; provides cross-trainings; and furthers inter- and intra-agency collaborations. Project Salud staff also travel to the different project sites to provide technical assistance and support to help the collaborators achieve their goals.

Project Salud seeks to assess and improve the HIV service delivery system available to its target populations by utilizing a System Change Model, which consists of four distinct stages. First, the project has been engaged in Needs Assessments which not only assess the needs of the clients and families, but also the needs, strengths, and limitations of the service-providing agencies. Using this information, stage 2 of the project evaluates how service agencies can best collaborate to maximize the potential benefits to clients and, consequently, develops an integrated service delivery system. Stage 3 involves intermediate collaborative outcomes such as recommending system-level policy changes, training of consumers, agency staff members, and system representatives, and disseminating information through magazine, newspaper and journal articles, and presentations. Finally, Stage 4 involves long-term outcomes such as increased client satisfaction with service provision and enhanced agency/system functioning.

To accomplish the objective of needs assessments, project staff have completed baseline interviews with HIV-positive women, conducted focus groups in multiple locations, and have been collecting data from clients receiving direct services from project sites. At the agency level, information has been collected and analyzed from individuals at different service organizations in South Texas to describe the current service delivery system, and a report of recommendations to improve the current system is under way. The project also has been active in disseminating information about the model, including speaking engagements with both local and national audiences, involvement in a number of newspaper/magazine articles about the project and its collaborators, and providing more than 100 training sessions to service providers, clients, agency representatives, and other interested parties.

For more information, contact Victor German, M.D., Ph.D. at the University of Texas Health Science Center, 7703 Floyd Curl Drive, San Antonio, TX 78284-7818, Phone: 210.567.7400, Fax: 210.567.7443, or email at german@uthscsa.edu.

SPNS/Fax is produced by The Measurement Group–PROTOTYPES Evaluation and Dissemination Center (EDC). Editorial comments should be made to The Measurement Group at 5811A Uplander Way, Culver City, California 90230, 310.216.1051, 310.670.7735 (fax).
 

Back to SPNS/Fax Directory

© Copyright 1996-2005 by The Measurement Group LLC. All rights reserved.