Division Projects
Project Be Aware
Project Be Aware is working to develop a computerized tutorial that will guide Planned Parenthood clinic patients -- primarily sexually active and at risk for HIV/AIDS -- to relevant and reliable information online.
The project targets sexually active adolescents and adults at risk for HIV/AIDS, it provides information in a health-care setting to reinforce physician-patient communication and it promotes online access as a unique medium for providing information and as an alternative to more traditional methods of information dissemination.
Ultimately, this project will identify an effective, self-guided and anonymous way of increasing information exposure among individuals at risk for HIV/AIDS.
Hope Recovery Program
This program targets African-American and Hispanic people who are HIV positive or at high risk for contracting the disease through intravenous drug use or chemical substance abuse and the female sexual partners of these people.
The Hope Recovery Program works to provide outreach to 5,000 people to provide prevention counseling and HIV/STD screening and testing to 500 people, to provide medical and direct services to a minimum of 10 people found to be HIV positive and to expand and enhance substance abuse services to an additional 150 HIV positive people in the outpatient and residential components.
The Hope Recovery Program partners with Hope Action Care, the Center for Health Care Services, the Patrician Movement and the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio to develop a model substance abuse/mental health/HIV prevention/direct services program.
HIV Education for High-Risk Minority Youths
The goal of this project is to adapt, modify and field test an evidence-based cognitive behavioral intervention. Approximately 170 high-risk adolescents have been recruited from two alternative high schools that serve a majority population of at-risk minority adolescents. Particiapnts will receive an eight-session curriculum. About 260 high-risk adolescents will be recruited from three control sites, two of which will receive the same eight-session curriculum, and the fourth will receive a modified four-session curriculum.
Project HOPE
This project targets homeless women with a diagnosed substance abuse disorder, mental illness or both. The project intends to provide the target population with comprehensive services to include counseling, treatment, medical, social, education, job training and housing.
The goal of this project is to decrease substance abuse, improve mental health, increase knowledge of HIV status and improve quality of life, including stable housing for homeless women with substance abuse and/or mental health problems.
Project LIFE
The overall aim of this project is to provide education about lead exposure to lead-exposed families and physicians working with these families.
The family education component consists of 250 primarily HIspanic, lead-exposed caregiver-parent pairs, including about 50 pregnant women.
The physician education component targets about 300 children's health-care professionals.
Project JUSTICE
Project Justice works with the Bexar County Juvenile Probation Department's drug court and community agencies to implement the 14 key elements of juvenile treatment drug courts, a comprehensive bio-psycho-social assessment and an evidence-based treatment service intervention over the course of three years.
The target population comprises almost 300 primarily HIspanic and African-American preadjudicated youths ages 10 to 16 from the Bexar County Juvenile Drug Courts.
Project Justice has the potential to improve substance-abuse treatment and to contribute to the national-level knowledge base concerning effective assessment and evidence-based treatment services for high-risk preadjudicated youth.
Project Respect
Project Respect seeks to implement, assess and assure the sustainability of an integrated, evidence-based preventive intervention that targets school achievement, mood management, substance-abuse prevention and HIV/STD prevention.
Information on effective substance-abuse and HIV-prevention programs that target at-risk HIspanic teens is scarce. Por Vida Academy, and alternative high school for at-risk minority youth in San Antonio, is collaborating with UT Health Science Center at San Antonio to improve outcome for these teens and increase the capacity of the community to sustain the intervention beyond the funding period.
Project SOAR
Project SOAR looks to provide family-focused, evidence-based substance abuse treatment, case management services and comprehensive assessment to adolescents with substance use disorders and/or co-occuring substance use disorders and mental health disorders.
The problem is insufficient treatment opporunties for adolescents with substance use disorders. The target population will consist of 120 young people, age 12 to 18, who are mostly Hispanic or African-American and meet criteria for substance use disorders. SOAR has the potential to improve substance abuse treatment outcomes for the target population. Nationally SOAR can enhance the knowledge base concerning effective assessment and evidence-based treatment services.
Project STAY
Substance Abuse Treatment Access for Youth (STAY) works with 240 incarcerated Hispanic and African-American at-risk teens. The goal of this project is to provide intensive family therapy, substance abuse counseling, case management and educational/vocational linkage as a way to prevent repeat incarceration.
Compared to the general youth population, incarcerated young people exhibit increased substance abuse problems and increased problems with mental health. The presence of mental health disorders and the inability to medically intervene is a major public health problem that negatively affects juvenile detainees' re-entry into society.
STAY aims to positively affect the outcomes of these young people.
Project SEEK
Project SEEK is based on the premise that individuals at highest risk to themselves are those who do not know thir HIV/AIDS status and are not seeking care. "Lost to care" HIV-infected individuals are often active substance abusers with co-occuring mental illnesses. SEEK aims to provide integrated medical care and social services to these "lost to care" individuals.
SEEK looks to improve substance compliance and mental stability, self-sufficiency and medical adherence through community collaboration, improved coordination of health-care systems and improved understanding of social networks. Community-based organizations will provide intensive outreach efforts to reach "lost to care" HIV-infected individuals. Enrolled participants will receive case management services, health education services, primary medical care, substance abuse treatment and mental health services.
Project SPARC
Project SPARC will work with community agencies over the course of five years to implement the five steps of th Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Strategic Prevention Framework for the San Antonio-Bexar County area. The primary goal is to prevent or reduce substance abuse, HIV and hepaitis in participant groups.
San Antonio has a high rate of HIV/AIDS -- which disporportionately affect minorities, those involved in the correctional system and minority re-entry populations. SPARC will address lack of knowledge regarding HIV or hepatitis risk, lack of effective preventive interventions for the targeted population, inadequate resources for health screenings and lack of effective coordination between service providers.
South Texas Family AIDS Network
The South Texas Family AIDS Network is a collaborative, multidisciplinary partnership serving a highly impoverished region in the southernmost part of Texas. The mission of this network is to expand the quality and length of life for a steadily increasing population of low-income HIV-infected and affected women, infants, children, youth, caregivers and family members in South Texas.
The network supports, enhances and expands a comprehensive system of family-centered, culturally and linguistically competent care designed to improve the quality and length of life for at least 1,800 people in the most economically disadvantaged area of the state of Texas.