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HopeHealth, Inc. (HH), a federally qualified health center and AIDS Service Organization, provides high-quality healthcare services to the low income, underserved population of the Pee Dee region of South Carolina. The proposed project will focus on African American and Hispanic/Latina women (ages 18 or older), and their significant others, who are living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS and who have substance use or co-occurring substance use and mental disorders, in Florence, Bamberg, and Orangeburg counties, SC. HH will expand access to IPV screening, referral, and treatment services among 500 minority women and their partners. Measurable objectives include: 1) incorporating IPV screening via the Hurt, Insult, Threaten with harm, and Scream at them (HITS) tool into existing screening protocols, which includes those for substance use and mental disorders, trauma, HIV testing, and Hepatitis B/C testing; 2) training grantee staff on SAMHSA's Trauma-Informed Approach (TIA), domestic violence, and IPV to promote effective screening and education of women; 3) tracking and monitoring adherence to the National CLAS Standards (culturally and linguistically appropriate) when executing IPV screenings; 4) promoting familiarization of local IPV support services among grantee personnel; 5) incorporating safety planning into client visits, inclusive of follow-up monitoring to include referrals; 6) monitoring and evaluating IPV screening, implementation, and outcomes. Outcomes include: 1) improved quality of life for those affected by trauma; 2) increased independent living among those in shelters; 3) communities are better informed about trauma; and 4) increased knowledge and understanding in community of local available sources and partner organizations serving individuals experiencing trauma.

The Boston Consortium Model Enhancement ("The Women's Wellness Program") seeks to enhance its ability to provide services for participants experiencing Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), integrating screenings and enhancing care coordination planning for women in our gender specific, culturally tailored, trauma-informed Behavioral Health Home so that they may receive a wider array of IPV services as needed, and so that the project may achieve its goal of reducing HIV and HIV risk among African American and Latina women with co-occurring trauma and substance use disorders. The Women's Wellness Program is situated in a large urban public health system continuum of care and is designed to be culturally, linguistically and ethnically appropriate to its target population of Latina and African American women. The project will provide IPV screening using the HITS tool to a target population comprising clients in the women's substance abuse treatment programs at the Boston Public Health Commission. Additionally, the program will use supplemental funding to provide staff with trainings on trauma-informed care and IPV, as well as enhance our care coordination planning so that we may provide women screening positive for IPV with linkages to a variety of internal and external supports for IPV. Care coordination planning will also be enhanced by ongoing multidisciplinary team meetings among project staff and external partners to follow up on referrals, ensure a feedback loop with other providers, and ensure ongoing safety planning for at-risk women. Funds will be used to track, monitor, and evaluate supplemental activities in order to demonstrate the feasibility of implementing IPV screenings in behavioral health settings. We expect to serve 85 women with this supplemental program.

The Lower Eastside Service Center, Inc. (LESC) target population for the proposed LESC TCE-HIV Minority Women's Mobile Health Project (MWMHP) are adult African-American and Hispanic females, with a substance use disorder (SUD) and a co-occurring disorder (COD), specifically a mental health problem including Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD); who are at high risk for contracting HIV and/or Hepatitis C (HCV) from their own or their partner's high risk behaviors; are in need of trauma-informed treatment services, health education, access to primary care, and medication management for either HIV or HCV; and in need of housing in order to become stabilized. The MWMHP staff will provide HIV and HCV Rapid testing; Motivational Interviewing (MI) as a brief intervention; Seeking Safety trauma-care; and HIV/STD risk reduction behavioral intervention via SISTA. These services will be offered to a high-risk population, within the communities where they live and use, in a manner designed to engage, promote, and assist with the steps needed to change high-risk behavior, building on the rapport and community acceptance developed from LESC's previous mobile effort, Wellness In Motion. The MWMHP will operate in lower Manhattan, providing, on-site, gender specific, culturally appropriate interventions to encourage treatment entry at the appropriate level of care; and support a continuum of care. The purpose of the MWMHP is fivefold: 1.To reduce HIV risk and encourage Rapid HIV (and HCV) testing; 2. Screen and assess MWMHP clients for a SUD, COD, and PTSD and link to care; 3. Monitor care being given, particularly adherence to ART; 4. Determine level of health literacy and presence of any chronic medical co-factors, and improve medical outcomes by processing those in need for Medicaid; 5. Initiate housing placement. LESC plans to serve 240 clients annually; 720 clients over the three-year span of the grant.