Let's talk about Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP). When an HIV- negative individual takes HIV meds (Truvada) in order to prevent HIV, we call it Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis. This biomedical intervention can be used by people in serodiscordant relationships (one person is HIV-positive and the other is not), by men who have sex with men at high risk, and even serodiscordant couples who are trying to have a baby. You probably have questions about PrEP, I know I do. I'm going to share some resources so we can all get good answers. PrEP is still a relatively new tool for HIV prevention and we are st ..read more

On October 16, 2013 I spent the day with 20 community leaders, learning about health reform and advocacy. We had an extra special guest, Joe Scarborough from the DE HIV Consortium, who shared some of his inside tips on advocacy. Below I'll share some of my visuals and notes from our discussion on the Myths of Health Reform. You can see all the visuals here. Health Reform Myths - Busted People are so confused by what they hear from friends, family, politicians and even the news. They have no idea what is fact or fiction. This list will help bust some of the most popular myths about the Afforda ..read more

Sometimes I get to go out into the world and learn from our amazing HIV community. On September 24th I got a chance to talk with about 30 case managers, social workers and other front line workers from a variety of HIV providers, health centers, and community organizations. It was a lively discussion about how health reform will help people living with HIV (PLWHA). We also covered some basics in communication; how to talk about health reform so people will understand and feel empowered to enroll in new coverage. You can read some about the communication tips here. I'm just going to cover the b ..read more

I am grateful to the folks at PHAN for pulling together an informative conference for PA advocates, providers, and public health wonks like me. We mostly talked about health reform and the Affordable Care Act, with enrollment starting on October 1. Here are some of my notes and impressions. I would love to hear from others who attended. The conference theme of Cover the Commonwealth informed the whole day's programming. We talked and talked about health reform in PA, including Gov. Corbett's proposal to reform (and expand) Medicaid, Healthy Pennsylvania. We also discussed how to talk to peo ..read more

This post is part of a monthly series. It provides an overview of themes and topics from the general meetings and committee meetings of the Ryan White Planning Council and HIV Prevention Planning Group. To view meeting materials and presentations, please visit www.hivphilly.org or check out our SlideShare account. Ryan White Planning Council (RWPC) First off, the RWPC's Needs Assessment Committee has new leadership!  Tre Alexander is a first-time co-chair for the committee, and Gerry Keys has returned as a co-chair once again.  During their meeting, the group continued its p ..read more

Everything I am about to say comes from the great work of Enroll America. Those folks have done the research and pulled it all together so we can use it to make sure all Americans have the affordable quality care they need. So check out all of their resources for everything you need to plan your outreach and enrollment work. The health reform law is so confusing and complicated. It doesn't surprise me that so many people feel like its just too much to understand, let alone do anything. So I'm going to try to break it down into some simple messages for you to share with people you want to enco ..read more

This week, I had the privilege of attending the PA statewide HIV Planning Group (HPG) meeting.  Pennsylvania has a new integrated planning body that includes both HIV prevention (for all counties except Philadelphia) and HIV care (for the whole state).  This overlaps with our local care planning for the five counties in Southeastern PA.  You can read a little more about this, plus get the meeting schedule, on the PA HPG's website.   PA HPG meetings take place outside of Harrisburg. Photo Credit: JasonTromm via Compfight cc Members of the PA state HPG ..read more

This post is part of a monthly series. It provides an overview of themes and topics from the general meetings and committee meetings of the Ryan White Planning Council and HIV Prevention Planning Group. To view meeting materials and presentations, please visit www.hivphilly.org. Ryan White Planning Council (RWPC) As you might remember, the Ryan White Planning Council hosted its annual regional allocations meetings in July.  Each of the three regions in the eligible metropolitan area (EMA) did some contingency planning for the 2014 - 21015 fiscal year.  (See each re ..read more

This is a big deal. Almost 400 people living with HIV told us about the services they use and the kinds of problems they had getting what they need. And lots of other things too. You’ll have to read the report to get all the details. But here’s a quick summary of what we learned and how we use this information. Good news and bad news (mostly good news) The region’s Ryan White clients are retained in care and virally suppressed. Almost everyone is getting the HIV medical care they need and are satisfied with the services they receive. Most people have insurance and a regular place for HIV care ..read more

The Positive Committee launched the revamped newsletter in August. You can get your copy here.  Inside you will find everything you need to know to be a member of the Positive Committee and to come to your first meeting of the Planning Council (the Philadelphia HIV Integrated Planning Council). In addition to all that handy information about community planning, you will also find resources for returning citizens and food resources like food banks and food vouchers. The Positive Committee decided to feature food and re-entry resources because of questions and experiences brought up at mee ..read more