APH offers the following services...

Click on each category for more information.

Care Services

• Medical Case Management
  
  APH employs ten medical case managers who are sited at health centers and community-based organizations throughout Hartford, Tolland and Middlesex counties. Medical case managers link HIV-positive individuals to appropriate medical care providers and offer ongoing assessments and evaluations of clients' physical, emotional and psychosocial needs. The goal of medical case management is to ensure optimal health outcomes for clients. Medical case managers are able to provide limited financial assistance with medical-related bills and basic living expenses. In addition, they can provide linkages to a variety of government and private assistance programs.
• Project TLC
  
  Project TLC provides short-term case management services to HIV+ inmates upon release from incarceration. Project TLC ensures that clients are not lost-to-care upon release by linking these clients to medical care, medication adherence support, entitlement programs and emergency housing.
• Connections Wellness Center
  
  Connections is an HIV drop-in center located in Hartford. The center has become a safe, supportive gathering place for individuals living with HIV. An array of services is offered at Connections including medical case management, support groups, meals, substance abuse counseling, mental health counseling, acupuncture (for relapse prevention), research studies and periodic outings and social activities. Click here for a schedule of activities.
• Housing Support
  
  The Housing Support program provides intensive case management and representative payee services for individuals who have a history of homelessness, evictions and/or housing instability. The goal of the program is to enable these high-risk clients to remain in safe, secure housing while ensuring that they remain compliant with medical care.
• Medication Adherence
  
  Medication adherence nurses provide individual education and counseling to clients who have a difficult time adhering to medication regimens.

Prevention

• Comprehensive Risk Counseling Services (CRCS)
  
  CRCS is a client-centered HIV prevention intervention. It's fundamental goal is promoting the adoption and maintenance of HIV risk-reduction behaviors by clients with multiple, complex risk reduction needs. CRCS includes intensive, ongoing, and individualized risk reduction counseling, support and service brokerage.
• Counseling & Testing
  
  AIDS Project Hartford offers HIV testing services at various locations throughout greater Hartford. Individuals can receive a fingerstick or oral swab test. Preliminary results are delivered within 20 minutes. As part of the testing process, individuals are provided with basic HIV education and risk reduction information. Contact Sandra Damato at 860-951-4833 for an updated schedule of hours and locations or to set up an appointment.
• Project Respect
  
  RESPECT is an individual-level HIV prevention intervention that supports risk reduction behaviors. This is done by increasing each client's perception of his/her personal risks and by teaching incremental risk-reduction strategies. RESPECT includes one-on-one risk reduction counseling sessions. During these sessions, the health educator works to increase the client's awareness of the circumstances, context and consequences of recent high-risk behaviors. RESPECT also addresses client barriers to risk reduction and strategizes with each client to overcome these barriers.
• SISTA
  
  SISTA is a group-level HIV prevention intervention aimed at reducing HIV sexual risk behavior among African American women. It consists of five two-hour sessions delivered by peer facilitators. The sessions are gender and culturally relevant and include behavioral skills practice, group discussions, lectures, role play, a prevention video, and homework exercises. Session topics include Ethnic/Gender Pride; HIV/AIDS Education; Self Assertiveness Skills Training; Behavioral Skills Management; and Coping.
• Street Smart
  
  Street Smart is a multi-session group-level HIV prevention intervention. The target population of this intervention is homeless, transient and high-risk youth. The majority of the sessions address improving the participants' social skills, particularly assertiveness and coping, through exercises that teach them to identify their emotional and behavioral reactions and unrealistic expectations in situations with potential risk for HIV transmission. The small group format permits collective support for safer behaviors and behavior change to be developed and mobilized. Information about HIV prevention may be conveyed through video clips and artwork where participants develop their own soap opera dramatizations, public service announcements, commercials, and rap songs about HIV prevention. In addition to the group sessions, private sessions with a health educator are included to give youth the opportunity to assess their own barriers to safer sex and discuss their dysfunctional attitudes and behavior patterns.

Harm Reduction

• Drug Treatment Advocacy
  
  Drug Treatment Advocacy is a service whose goal is to help high-risk individuals gain entry to drug treatment facilities. Drug treatment advocates provide support, education and resources to substance users up until the point that they are ready to enter treatment. Drug treatment advocates continue to work with clients upon release from treatment in an effort to support each client's sobriety and prevent relapses. DTA services are client-centered (clients are never pressured to enter treatment) and are provided in a non-judgmental manner.
• Hartford Syringe Exchange Program
  
  The Syringe Exchange Program is a harm-reduction service that encourages injection drug users to dispose of used hypodermic needles rather than sharing the needles and increasing the transmission of blood borne pathogens. SEP services are provided from a mobile van that operates in Hartford's Park Street and Albany Avenue neighborhoods six days per week. Services are offered during morning, afternoon and late night hours. In addition to syringe exchanges, the SEP provides HIV testing, risk reduction counseling, drug treatment advocacy, food packages and hygiene kits. SEP staff also refer clients to drug treatment programs, medical providers and social service agencies. The Hartford SEP provides services to approximately 500 injection drug users each year and is responsible for removing more than 100,000 used needles from the streets of Hartford and its surrounding towns. Click here for a schedule.