The reciprocal effects of program evaluation on service delivery for the SPNS adolescent HIV outreach and treatment programs.

Purpose: To describe the contexts within which the Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Adolescent HIV Outreach and Treatment programs were evaluated, the effects their evaluations had on their respective programs and, in turn, the effects the program delivery had on the evaluations.

Methods: The full range of process evaluation heuristics were used to analyze the bi-directional effects of conducting field-based, service delivery data collection. Although data collection efforts sometimes interfered with service delivery, and vice versa, several notable positive effects were disclosed.

Making waves: systems change on behalf of youth with HIV/AIDS.

Purpose: To document the effects of five Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS), funded by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), on HIV care, related service systems, policy, planning, and funding for youth with HIV/AIDS.

Methods: Literature on services and systems integration and technology transfer is used as a conceptual framework for the examination of HIV-informed, youth-specific changes at the local, state, and national levels. The Principal Investigators for each project and/or the Project Evaluators were interviewed several times to capture "snapshots" of evolving results from the Projects' varied activities in New York City; Newark, New Jersey; Chicago; and Miami.

Retention, adherence, and compliance: special needs of HIV-infected adolescent girls and young women.

Purpose: To demonstrate that whereas all HIV-infected youth evidence complex factors that challenge retention in care and adherence to treatment, HIV-infected females have additional issues that are gender-specific.

Methods: Preliminary data from a subset of 21 adolescent/young women under age 25 from the Whole Life mental health-perinatal HIV care project were analyzed to illustrate the needs of these patients.

Results: Of the 21 young women assessed, all but one was of minority background, and a sizeable majority had limited education ( View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The utilization of treatment and case management services by HIV-infected youth.

Purpose: This article describes the essential components for effective and comprehensive HIV care for youth who have tested positive and have been linked to HIV treatment. Descriptive profile data are also presented that detail the demographics, risk behaviors and health care barriers of youth served in the five Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS), which focused on adolescents and young adults.

Methods: Data presented are from the core multi-site data set, which was standardized across the five youth-oriented SPNS projects.

Transitioning youths into care: linking identified HIV-infected youth at outreach sites in the community to hospital-based clinics and or community-based health centers.

Purpose: To describe and analyze the process of transitioning HIV-infected youths from the point of HIV diagnosis into HIV treatment. Rather than simply offering HIV positive youths a list of referrals, the youth-focused SPNS grantees (AWAC) found it vital that youths were immediately assisted with linkage to a medical provider.

Methods: From February 1997 to December 2000, 107 identified HIV-infected youths from the five adolescent SPNS projects were surveyed on needs and barriers.