CRUSH - Connecting Resources for Urban Sexual Health
Creators: name: University Of California Office Of The President
Publisher: name: University of California Office of the President
publisherIdentifier: https://ror.org/00dmfq477
publisherIdentifierScheme: ROR
Year: 2024

description: Thirty years after AIDS was discovered, HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) continues to spread in the United States, primarily through sex and injection drug use, but we have come a long way. We now have a coordinated plan to combat AIDS, the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. There are other important signs of progress, too, such as recent studies showing that HIV infection can be prevented by taking medicines BEFORE being exposed to the virus, as a traveler to Africa takes anti-malarial medications to prevent malaria. Other studies have proven that people living with HIV who are taking medicines are much less likely to spread the virus to others, and that if everyone who was infected got tested and stayed on medicines, the spread of HIV would slow dramatically. Despite these successes, HIV continues to take an enormous toll in some communities. The number of new infections is still rising in young African American and Latino men who have sex with men (MSM), even as numbers level off in other groups. Racism, poverty, stigma, lack of health insurance, and lack of welcoming places to receive health care are important contributors to this problem. The East Bay AIDS Center (EBAC) and the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies (CAPS) are proposing to fight the HIV epidemic in California by meeting the need for high quality health care for young MSM of color in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area. The CRUSH project (Connecting Resources for Urban Sexual Health) will improve access to state-of-the art healthcare by combining cutting-edge research at CAPS and compassionate and welcoming health care at EBAC. Best of all, the expansion of health insurance through health care reform means that these important services can be continued, even after funding for the project runs out. The CRUSH project has three specific goals that together will bring us closer to ending the epidemic-- (1) to test more young MSM of color in the East Bay for HIV, (2) to provide sexual health services including medicines that prevent HIV to clients that test negative for HIV, and (3) to improve primary care for HIV positive clients. We will make it easier to get tested for HIV by asking our patients to tell their friends about us and bring them in for a test, a strategy that works well across the country and in the East Bay. We will also advertise through websites and organizations that serve young MSM of color. All of our sexual health services will be designed side-by-side with young MSM of color to make sure that they are respectful and welcoming, and we will become one of only a few places in the area to prescribe medicines to prevent HIV. We will also improve our current primary care services for HIV positive patients by providing extra support at every stage of the process through face-to-face discussions with social workers when patients are first referred to us, text messages to remind patients of upcoming appointments, and connecting our patients to people who have been through similar experiences to help guide them through rough spots. We will keep close track of how well we are doing by using electronic medical records, surveys, interviews, and focus groups. A community advisory board made up of clients and advocates serving young MSM of color in the East Bay will guide us in our work, and we will share our successes and challenges with others, from our local community to doctors and researchers across the country, to move us one step closer to the end of AIDS.