 |
|||||||
Preface
As the number of people seeking HIV care in the U.S. has grown, the demand has increased not only for medical care but for a wide range of supportive services. This in turn has increased the need for demonstrated and tested service models that can address a comprehensive set of needs. The 500,000 Americans who have died from AIDS are a stark reminder of our responsibility to deliver comprehensive, compassionate, and effective care. This responsibility increases each day as 8,000 persons die of the disease world wide. The theme of the XIth International AIDS Conference in 1996 – one world, one hope – reminds us of our interdependence in the face of this epidemic.
This report details the progress of the cooperative agreements funded by the Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Program of the Office of Science and Epidemiology (OSE), Bureau of Health Resources Development (BHRD), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) on October 1, 1994. The purpose of the HRSA/HAB's SPNS is to evaluate and disseminate innovative models of HIV care.
HRSA/HAB's SPNS HIV Innovative Models of Care Initiative is an effort by 27 HRSA-funded projects to jointly establish goals and objectives, develop common evaluation methods, and produce comparable and measurable outcomes for innovative models of HIV care. At the same time, technical assistance in programmatic, evaluation, and dissemination issues are shared among grantees, technical experts, and HRSA staff.
At the end of its first year, this group of grantees issued its first annual report. In that report the successful governance structure of the group was described and joint accomplishments were listed. Future plans for the collective as well as individual grantees were proposed.
As the same group of grantees completes its second year of activities, a number of specific activities have been undertaken with some very specific outcomes. This report focuses on the general activities of the grantees as well as on their specific outcomes. Of particular importance, the common evaluation system of the grantees has been implemented and a means has been developed for quantifying the outcomes of the projects. A number of dissemination strategies have been used to distribute results including presentations at scientific meetings, an electronic (faxed) newsletter, poster sessions in Washington, D.C. for decision makers, and a World Wide Web page on project results.
Continuing from the first year, the Steering Committee has five Work Groups. Each Work Group has elected its own chair. The Work Group chairs are responsible for determining meeting agenda, facilitating communications within their Work Groups, and helping to guide the overall Steering Committee policies. The individuals who served on the Steering Committee as Work Group chairs during the second year included David A. Cherin, Ph.D.; Bernadette Lalonde, Ph.D.; Karen Meredith, M.P.H., R.N.; Anne Stanton, L.C.S.W.; and Leslie R. Wolfe, Ph.D. The overall Steering Committee elected Trudy A. Larson, M.D., as chair. Dr. Larson has guided the overall policies of the Steering Committee, set agenda for meetings, and helped set the goals for the group. Representatives to the Steering Committee are listed at the front of this volume.
A subcommittee consisting of George J. Huba, Ph.D., Trudy A. Larson, M.D., and Barney Singer, J.D., guided the development of the original draft of this report. Lisa A. Melchior, Ph.D. also contributed to the initial draft. The subcommittee prepared this report at the request of the full Cooperative Agreement Steering Committee at the September 1996 meeting in Chevy Chase, Maryland. George Huba and Lisa Melchior were responsible for collecting the recommendations of the subcommittee and the full Steering Committee into the final version of the report. In respect to this report, special thanks are due to Lara Luenebrink and Natasha De Veauuse, M.P.H. of The Measurement Group for overall production oversight and assistance on this report, and to Blanca Flor Guillen for word processing assistance.
The Steering Committee held four meetings in its second year. Meeting logistics were coordinated by The Measurement Group—PROTOTYPES Evaluation and Dissemination Center and more specifically, under the direction of Vivian B. Brown, Ph.D., and Marge Tischer of PROTOTYPES.
HRSA staff who have provided support during the past year include Barney Singer, J.D., Katherine Marconi, Ph.D.; Mirtha Beadle, M.P.A.; Russell E. Brady; Philomena Green; and Joyce Heinonen.
Two of the 27 Cooperative Agreement Projects had funding cycles which ended after the second year. This report is dedicated to these two projects, the Indiana Community Advocacy Network and the Michigan Protection and Advocacy Service, and to their respective project directors, Paul Chase, J.D., and Jay Kaplan, J.D.
© Copyright 1998-2005 by The Measurement Group LLC. All rights reserved.