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DHWDC News
News Updates from the Michigan Department of Community Health Division of
Health, Wellness and Disease Control (DHWDC)
March 2007 - Michigan News
Continuum of Care Unit
The Continuum of Care Unit issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for
care services on February 2nd. All agencies that submitted Letters of Intent
must submit their RFP on Friday, April 20, 2007 by 5:00 p.m.
The Michigan’s Persons Living with HIV/AIDS Conference will be held at the
Thomas Edison Inn in Port Huron on April 28th and 29th. For more information on
the conference, please contact Debbie Cornell at (517) 241-5919.
The Case Management Conference will be held at the Great Wolf Lodge June 20th
through June 22nd. Please contact Belinda Chandler for further information at
(517) 241-5926.
The Continuum of Care Unit is in the process of conducting its cyclical site
visits for the purpose of reviewing and auditing programmatic, financial and
contractual information. Jane DuFrane will review all currently funded care
providers for the FY05/06 contract year. The visits will take place between
March and September 2007.
ADAP is currently in the midst of client renewal and all individuals on the
program must re-apply by March 30th to remain active on the program. As of March
1st, the Drug Assistance Program has 1,996 eligible clients on the program. The
Michigan Dental Plan has 388 eligible clients. Both of these numbers will grow
after the renewal process is completed.
Education, Training and Resource Development Unit
2007 Training Calendar Update
Due to scheduling conflicts, the ETRDU has rescheduled 2 events in the 2007
training calendar. The One-Day HIV Prevention Specialist/Test Counselor Update
“Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and HIV” has been rescheduled from the
original date of June 27 to the new date of June 20, 2007. The location remains
in Detroit; the registration deadline remains June 1, 2007.
Additionally, the “Assuring the Quality of HIV Prevention Counseling” workshop,
scheduled June 18 – 19, 2007, is rescheduled to May 30 –31, 2007. The location
remains in Detroit. The new registration deadline is May 12, 2007.
Please contact Julie Babb for any questions regarding registration for these
events. She may be reached at (517) 241-5903.
Quality Assurance
HAPIS is expanding its direct observation quality assurance initiative for
Counseling, Testing & Referral (CTR) services. In 2006, in consultation with a
community advisory body of CBOs and LHD representatives, HAPIS developed and
piloted a CTR quality assurance process that included observation of counseling
sessions and chart review. Tools and procedures were revised after the pilot
process, and HAPIS will be conducting additional visits in the spring of 2007
with directly funded agencies that have not yet received these visits. Local
Health Departments interested in participating in the process on a voluntary
basis are invited to contact Bob Barrie at barrier@michigan.gov.
Community Partnerships –Prevention Unit
HIV National Testing Day (NTD)
This year the HIV/AIDS Prevention and Intervention Section (HAPIS) will conduct
its 6th annual National Test Day Kick-Off Rally one month early on Wednesday,
April 11th from 9:30 a.m. – 3:00 p.m. in Okemos. The reason for this change is
two-fold: to give agencies the opportunity to plan extraordinary events and to
roll out a new mini grant process being offered this year to enhance NTD events
that propose unique and innovative strategies. The rally and NTD efforts are
being given a large shot of enthusiasm by the new coordinator of this event,
HAPIS Prevention Consultant Lisa Taton-Murphy. If you haven’t already done so,
please sign up to attend this event; lunch will be provided and drawings for
door prizes will take place at the end of the day. For those individuals who
cannot attend the rally, plans of action and information about NTD and the new
mini grant opportunity are available from Lisa Taton-Murphy, telephone
517.241.5932 or email TatonL@michigan.gov.
Save-the Date: Hepatitis Conference
MDCH and the American Liver Foundation will be holding a second statewide
conference on hepatitis entitled “Hepatitis C: From Silence to Solutions” on
December 4, 2007 in Plymouth at the St. Johns Conference Center. Registration
information will be available in April.
Quality Assurance Update
In the first months of the new HIV prevention funding cycle, Community
Partnerships Unit (CPU) prevention consultants conducted initial and 90-day
monitoring and quality assurance site visits with prevention grantees. The
visits were guided by revised protocols and were designed to assess and support
intervention implementation and compliance with program requirements.
Consultations explored issues including contract compliance, staff training and
supervision, client recruitment and retention, community input, venues
identification, program materials, data collection, quality assurance,
evaluation, and referrals. Next steps for quality assurance include conducting
counseling, testing & referral (CTR) quality assurance visits, which will
include direct observation of counseling, with those agencies that have not yet
participated in this process. CPU staff will team with staff from HAPIS’
Education, Training, Resource Development and Continuous Quality Improvement
units to conduct the visits. The first wave of visits is scheduled for March and
April.
Capacity Development Update
Path to Intervention Adaptation Course
On March 1-2, 2007, David Napp of Practical Applications of Public Health
facilitated the training Path to Intervention Adaptation: Optimizing
Intervention Outcomes. The course was attended by twenty-eight (28) individuals
from community based organizations and local health departments. The training
focused on program and evaluation quality. Steps along the “path to adaptation”
include 1) assuring fidelity to the program plan and curriculum, 2) assessing
the quality of evaluation measures and tools, 3) recruiting and retaining the
intended target population for the intervention, and finally, 4) adjusting the
intervention to make it the most effective for participants.
Upcoming HAPIS Trainings - Upcoming Community
Partner Trainings
HAPIS staff have been working hard to provide one-on-one technical assistance to
partner agencies on areas including developing new curricula, bolstering
recruitment, and improving intervention effectiveness. These efforts will be
supplemented by formal group-level trainings in the coming months, provided both
by DHWDC and partner agencies. Some of these training opportunities are listed
in the training section.
3rd Annual Black AIDS Awareness Campaign
The annual Black AIDS Awareness Campaign (BAAC) was created in recognition of
the disproportionate impact HIV/AIDS has had, and continues to have, on the
African American community. The rate of persons living with HIV infection in
Michigan is nine times higher among African Americans than among whites.
HIV/AIDS is a health crisis in the African American community.
The 3rd Annual Black AIDS Awareness Campaign began on February 1, 2007 (the
beginning of Black History Month) with a town hall meeting at the Second
Ebenezer Church in Detroit. The town hall meeting, Re-Sound the Alarm: HIV is
still Raging in Detroit, was attended by over 90 individuals and was successful
in reaching the African American community, not just service providers.
On February 7, 2007, the Division of Health, Wellness and Disease Control
participated in the National Leadership Commission on AIDS (NBLCA) and the local
BLCA chapter’s breakfast and press release for the 7th Annual National Black
HIV/AIDS Awareness & Information Day.
BAAC activities are occurring in 29 Michigan cities with 26 agencies
participating. This year, 10 new agencies joined the Campaign. BAAC activities
include free HIV counseling and testing, STD screening, press conferences,
proclamations from local and state dignitaries, prayer breakfasts, display
tables, news releases, a poetry slam, mobile outreach, information in church
bulletins, materials distribution, educational programs, showing of the ABC
Primetime “Out of Control – AIDS in Black American” video documentary, and a
woman’s health conference. BAAC will conclude on March 18, 2007.
See Winter 2006 Archived News
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