Evaluating HIV/AIDS Treatment Programs: Innovative Methods and Findings

Create effective community-based programs for substance abusers with HIV/AIDS!
Substance abusers are the fastest-growing population of people with HIV/AIDS in the US--and one of the hardest to reach and treat. Evaluating HIV/AIDS Treatment Programs offers new strategies for providing care for this vulnerable population. The programs evaluated and discussed in this volume were funded as part of the DHHS Health Resources and Services Administration through its Special Projects of National Significance Program. Collectively known as the SPNS Cooperative Agreement, these 27 projects represent a diverse group of organizations with a common goal: to improve the health, quality of life, and access to health care for traditionally underserved populations living with HIV/AIDS.

Evaluating HIV/AIDS Treatment Programs reports in detail the efforts of several community-based HIV/AIDS organizations in the SPNS program. You will learn how these organizations provide high-quality care for persons with HIV who are unlikely to obtain it in the traditional hospital-based service system. This volume offers specific, proven strategies designed to overcome the linguistic, cultural, racial, and economic barriers that make it difficult for some sick people to get the health care they need. It also offers specialized medical care models that work within the context of a continuum of services in a medical clinic.

Evaluating HIV/AIDS Treatment Programs also highlights other aspects of the Cooperative Agreement projects, including:

• a study of end-stage AIDS care
• an overview of the HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau SPNS Cooperative Agreement grant initiative
• a study of conceptual issues in implementing program evaluation in real-world community organizations
• discussion of the online Knowledge Base that summarizes and disseminates information from the Cooperative Agreement projects
• studies of ways to reach and care for specific populations with HIV/AIDS, including women, Latinos, Haitians, adolescents, and rural people
  This valuable volume offers solid data on treating people who are all too often neglected by the medical community even before they contract HIV/AIDS. The programs and ideas presented in Evaluating HIV/AIDS Treatment Programs can be applied to other community-based health initiatives and clinics offering medical care to underserved and vulnerable populations. This essential resource deserves a permanent place on their bookshelf of any physician, administrator, or policymaker working in the fields of HIBV/AIDS, epidemiology, public health, or substance abuse.
  
  Visit the book's website at http://www.TheMeasurementGroup.com/drugs_and_society.htm

G. J. Huba, PhD, Editor, is President and Founder of The Measurement Group, a California-based consulting firm that specializes in social policy research, program evaluation, instrument development, and analysis. Dr. Huba was formerly on the faculties of UCLA and the University of Minnesota and Vice President of Research and Development at Western Psychological Services, a test publisher. A licensed psychologist, Dr. Huba received his PhD from Yale University in 1977. He is a fellow of the Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics Division and the Addictions Division of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Huba is the author of more than 200 professional works in the technical areas of multivariate statistics, evaluation, the design of computerized expert systems and psychological instrumentation, innovative applications of the Internet for evaluation and information dissemination, and in the content areas of HIV services, substance abuse treatment and prevention, and large-scale human service delivery systems. Lisa A. Melchior, PhD, Associate Editor, is Vice President of The Measurement Group, an applied social research and program evaluation firm. Prior to her work with The Measurement Group, Dr. Melchior coordinated projects in development at Western Psychological Services, a major publisher of psychological and educational tests. A licensed psychologist, Dr. Melchior received her PhD in psychological assessment from the University of Michigan in 1990. She is an active member of the American Psychological Association and the American Public Health Association. Dr. Melchior has published widely in the areas of survey research and evaluation of HIV/AIDS, substance abuse, and mental health services, particularly with respect to services for women and youth and persons with co-occurring disorders. Vivian B. Brown, PhD, Associate Editor, is founder and Chief Executive Offier of PROTOTYPES, Centers for Innovation in Health, Mental Health and Social Services, a multi-facility, multi-service agency with services located throughout California and Washington, DC. Dr. Brown has more than 30 years of experience developing innovative, communitybased services including Community Mental Health Centers and crisis intervention centers; residential, day treatment and outpatient drug abuse treatment services; HIV/AIDS outreach, prevention and interventions for women; specialized services for women, their children and their families;mental health treatment and specialized dual diagnosis interventions; trauma and domestic violence prevention and intervention services. Dr. Brown received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Southern California. She is an adjunct Associate Professor of Psychiatry at UCLA and a fellow of the American Psychological Association. She is also a member of numerous federal, state, and local advisory committees and was elected as a Distinguished Practitioner in the National Academy of Practice Psychology. Trudy A. Larson, MD, Associate Editor, is Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean of Primary Care Research, Education and Service at the University of Nevada School of Medicine. In this role she oversees all state and national outreach activities of the School of Medicine, including rural health system development, communitybased medical education, public health program evaluation, continuing education for health professionals, health policy development, and the ongoing expansion and improvement of public health in Nevada through program innovation. Dr. Larson is the Medical Director of the Nevada Area AIDS Education and Training Center, the Principal Investigator of the Nevada AIDS Drug Assistance Program Comprehensive Evaluation Project, and a member of the Nevada State AIDS Advisory Board. A pediatric infectious disease specialist, she is the former Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Nevada School of Medicine where she has served since 1984. A. T. Panter, PhD, Associate Editor (1989, New York University), is Associate Professor of Psychology in the L. L. Thurstone Psychometric Laboratory at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is also a senior technical consultant at The Measurement Group. Dr. Panter’s major research areas are measurement and test theory, multivariate data modeling, evaluation design, and individual differences. She has received several university-wide awards for her innovative approaches to teaching statistics and quantitative methodology to undergraduate and graduate students. Dr. Panter has been extensively involved in The Measurement Group’s multi-site evaluation centers and has specialized in work with projects that provide technical assistance and/or health education/training to health care providers. She regularly consults with federal agencies on grant review, is a regular member of NIMH’s grant panel on Risk, Prevention, and Health Behavior (RPHB-4), and serves on numerous national committees and editorial boards in the area of social/personality psychology and quantitative methods.