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Spring greetings from Hennepin County’s Ryan White Program staff. This is an exciting year and one of the busiest in recent memory.
New Unmet Needs Rebate funding from DHS is increasing our capacity to meet the needs of Minnesotans living with HIV and targeting the communities most disproportionately impacted by the epidemic.
 The new Minnesota
Council for HIV/AIDS Care and Prevention embarks on integrating all of our
federal HIV grant community planning activities in Minnesota and in the
Minneapolis-St. Paul Part A Transitional Grant Area (including two Counties in
Western Wisconsin).
The Council will be developing the first five-year Integrated
Comprehensive HIV Prevention and Care Plan for Minnesota. They will also be
prioritizing services and allocating Ryan White Program Part A and B
funds to service priorities for fiscal years 2017 and 2018.
Three
community work groups continue to convene to address disparities in
access to HIV care and prevention services and health outcomes experienced by
Africans, African-American and Latino gay/bisexual/MSM, and Latina transgender
women.
To eliminate the gaps in our HIV Care Continuum (diagnosis, linkage, retention and viral suppression) we launched “eHARS to CAREWare” in March to coordinate Minnesota’s HIV surveillance system with our Ryan White client level database (Minnesota CAREWare).
This will help community-based providers improve their tracking of clients’ retention in care and viral suppression. “eHARS to CAREWare” will also improve Hennepin County, DHS, and MDH’s ability to evaluate the effectiveness of our HIV care and prevention efforts which ultimately helps reduce new infections and secure public funding for the future.
Data-to-care is a key component of achieving the National HIV/AIDS Strategy goals. By keeping those ROIs coming we facilitate empowerment of those we serve to actively participate in our community’s efforts to improve health and prevent HIV infection.
Most importantly, thank you for your steadfast commitment and excellent work in improving the lives of people living with HIV -- and reducing new infections -- so we can finally move towards ending the epidemic in Minnesota. Collectively we served 4,123 people living with HIV in 2015, 88% of whom were retained in HIV medical care!
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 Inyene Ekah has joined the Ryan White
contract management team.
Previously, Inyene managed Hennepin County
Eligibility and Work Services contracts.
As Inyene moves into his new role,
Kathryn Hansen will be transitioning out of her Ryan White contracts. She will
now be overseeing Juvenile Probation contracts for the Department of Community
Corrections and Rehabilitation. We wish Kathryn the best and welcome Inyene to
the Ryan White contract management team!
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Periodically, the Human Services and Public
Health Department offers contracting information sessions to support the
ability of contracted providers to meet contracting requirements.
Pre-registration
is required. To pre-register, email hsphpartners@hennepin.us with the names of
attendees, their email addresses and a contact telephone number. You will
receive a follow-up email confirming your registration.
The link to the
provider page is: http://www.hennepin.us/hsphpartners
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As
the result of the recent request for proposal, please see the updated list of
Hennepin County’s Ryan White Part A providers organized by the service they deliver.
Early Intervention
Emergency Financial Assistance
Food Bank/Home-delivered Meals
- Aliveness
- Minnesota AIDS Project
- Open Arms
Health Education/Risk Reduction
- HC Public Health Clinic
- Minnesota AIDS Project
- West Side
Health Insurance Premiums
Home & Community based Health
Housing
Legal
Medical Case Management (MCM)
- African American AIDS Task Force
- Allina
- Children's
- HealthPartners
- Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation
- Sub-Saharan African & Youth Svs
- West Side
MCM - Adult Foster Care
MCM - Treatment Adherence
Medical Nutrition Therapy
Medical Transportation
- Sub-Saharan African & Youth Svs
Mental Health
- HCMC
- Sub-Saharan African & Youth Svs
- West Side
Outpatient & Ambulatory Medical Care
- HealthPartners
- HCMC
- West Side
Outreach
- Aliveness
- HC Public Health Clinic
Psychosocial Support
- African American AIDS Task Force
- Minnesota AIDS Project
- Sub-Saharan African & Youth Svs
- West Side
Substance Abuse Treatment - Outpatient
- Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation
- Minnesota AIDS Project
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As the result of the recent request for proposal, please see the updated list of Hennepin County’s Ryan White Part B/Rebate Services providers organized by the service they deliver.
Early Intervention
- Aliveness
- HC Public Health Clinic
Emergency Financial Assistance
Food Bank/Home-delivered Meals
- Aliveness
- Minnesota AIDS Project
- Rural AIDS Action Network
Health Education/Risk Reduction
- Children's
- Minnesota AIDS Project
Health Insurance Premiums
Housing
Legal
Medical Case Management
- African American AIDS Task Force
- Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation
Medical Nutrition Therapy
Medical Transportation
- African American AIDS Task Force
- Aliveness
- Allina
- HealthPartners
- HCMC
- HC Public Health Clinic
- Minnesota AIDS Project
- Rural AIDS Action Network
- West Side
Non Medical Case Management
Outpatient & Ambulatory Medical Care
Outreach
- Aliveness
- HC Public Health Clinic
Psychosocial Support
Substance Abuse Treatment - Outpatient
- Minneapolis Medical Research Foundation
- Minnesota AIDS Project
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 This has been a big year for the MN Council
for HIV/AIDS Care & Prevention (MCHACP). I’m honored to have joined the
Ryan White team at Hennepin County Health Services Public Health Department
(HSPHD) as coordinator last fall.
A Council member selection committee was
formed last year, which was comprised of former members of the previous
Planning Council and CCCHAP at MDH. The committee was responsible
for selecting a new 33-member council and meeting HRSA and CDC requirements for
membership.
A new member orientation meeting was held on
January 12th for the inaugural council meeting. The February and March
meetings enabled the Council to elect their council & committee co-chairs.
Larry McPherson and Roger Ernst are serving as community co-chairs, and Rob
Yaeger is serving as a MDH-appointed co-chair. The official Council by-laws, with
updates to the conflict of interest and code of conduct sections, were also
reviewed, and approved by the Council at the March 8th meeting. The
Intergovernmental Cooperative Agreement (IGCA) was signed, and the official
appointment letters to all Council members were sent.
The new committees of the Council, and the
corresponding co-chairs are:
- Community Voices Committee (CVC) – Bielca
Guevara & Rick Laska
- Disparities Elimination Committee (DEC) – Gwen
Velez & Robert Gillum, Jr.
- Membership & Training Committee (M&T) –
Lesa Nelson & Loyal Brooks
- Needs Assessment & Evaluation Committee (NA&E)
– Karin Sabey & Alejandro Aguilera
- Planning & Allocations Committee (PAC) –
Marvin Innes & Tim Kopischke
We look forward to the exciting work of the
remaining months of this year. Our Council and committee members will be very
busy with various tasks.
We’re working on completing two-year work plans for each
of the five committees and the Council overall. The Council is also currently
in the process of developing an integrated five-year comprehensive care and prevention plan, based on the current needs, gaps and barriers, as well as
the newly released (April 27th) Epidemiologic profile. This
comprehensive, coordinated care and prevention plan will be written, reviewed, and approved in August. This year also signals an allocations retreat, wherein
the Council will allocate Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program Part A and B funds to
the service priorities for fiscal years 2017 and 2018.
All of our meetings are open to the public,
and therefore all those who may be interested in helping us end the HIV/AIDS
epidemic in Minnesota are welcome to attend. The schedule of meetings can be found on
our newly revised website: www.mnhivcouncil.org.
In solidarity,
Patrick Tschida, MPH, DrPH
MCHACP Coordinator
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 In 2013, the National Office of Minority Health Resource
Center (OMHRC), the Minnesota HIV Services Planning Council, Minnesota
Department of Health, Minnesota Department of Human Services, and Hennepin
County Ryan White Program initiated engagement with key leaders in HIV care and
prevention work for African-born and African American and Latino gay and
bisexual men in Minnesota (in response to the disproportionate
impact of HIV/AIDS experienced by these communities).
The meetings with African-born, African American, and Latino
HIV care and prevention leaders led to the formation of the African Leaders,
the African American Gay/Bi/MSM and the Latino Gay/Bi/MSM and Latina
Transgender workgroups. The workgroups met to address the following HIV
disparities:
- African Americans account for 20 percent of new
infections in 2014 while making up only 4 percent of the total population in Minnesota
(Minnesota Department of Health, 2014).
-
African-born persons accounted for 17 percent of new HIV
infections diagnosed in 2014, but account for an estimated 1 percent of the statewide
population (Minnesota Department of Health, 2014).
- Latino gay, bisexual and other men who have sex
with men experience a disproportionate burden of the HIV/AIDS epidemic (CDC,
2011).
-
Hispanics account for 9 percent of persons living with
HIV/AIDS in Minnesota. Hispanic persons have more than three times the rate of
people living with HIV than white, non-Hispanic persons (286.1 per 100,000
persons and 90.3 per 100,000 persons respectively) (Minnesota Department
of Health, 2015).
-
Seventy-six percent of prevalent HIV/AIDS
cases are males. Overall, male-to-male sex continues to be the
greatest transmission risk with 66 percent of new cases. Of the male cases, 20 percent are African
American and 10 percent are Hispanic.
-
Transgender
communities in the United States are among the groups at highest risk for HIV
infection. The Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the highest percentage of
newly identified HIV-positive test results was among transgender women (2.1 percent).
(CDC, 2015)
The meetings culminated with three HIV Health Summits in 2013
and 2014. Please refer to past newsletters for summary information.
OMHRC continues to provide capacity building assistance to
the workgroups. Status report:
- The African Leaders workgroup continues to meet and held an
African Health Summit in 2015 that was supported by OMHRC. A strategic planning
session is scheduled for this summer. Agness Mumba, a fellow with the Humphrey
Institute, is also working with the Hennepin County Ryan White Program to engage
African faith leaders to develop a curriculum for them to promote HIV
prevention and testing in their communities.
- The African American Gay/Bi/MSM Workgroup continued to meet and
convened their first strategic planning meeting on March 31st. The
group developed a list of expectations and values. The second strategic
planning meeting is scheduled for mid-May.
- The Latino Gay/Bi/MSM and Latina Transgender Workgroup continued
to meet and convened their first strategic planning session on April 3, 2016.
The group developed a list of expectations and values and mapped out
community partnerships. The second strategic planning session is scheduled for
mid-May.
Both
workgroups discussed ways to mobilize the community and entertained areas the
workgroups may advise funders and local planning bodies. Funded pilot projects
have been executed in response to findings from the workgroups. The expertise
of these workgroups are key for us to better understand and address the HIV
disparities experienced by African-born, African American gay/bi/MSM, Latino
gay/bi/MSM and Latina transgender women in Minnesota.
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