Pillar Four:

Respond

This strategy aims to respond to growing HIV clusters and to prevent new infections via partnership approaches. It is important to disentangle sexual behaviors, STI, IDU, and PrEP uptake, given epidemic proportions among adolescents and young adults.

Take children to their medical appointments, whether or not they have HIV. (Explore ride share, Uber, bus passes, etc.) Assist with medication administration.
Increase funding resources to agencies who advocate for and address homelessness. Identify Ryan White funding allocation for housing services.
Identify financial resources that are available to assist patients with premium payments, co-pays, and other costs associated with HIV treatment. Train pharmacists to refer clients to benefits enrollment counselors when needed.
Identify communities most affected by HIV. Engage leaders in the LBGTQIA+ community to assist in identifying neutral spaces for the community to engage in information sharing and discussions.
Decriminalize sex work by abolishing the practice of police using the possession of a large number of condoms as evidence that one is engaging in sex work. Implement policy so that sex workers who are HIV(+) are not added to the sex offender registry. Also, remove sex workers from the registry who were listed because of HIV status.
Create coalition of faith-based leaders and health educators. Locate faith-based organizations that have already indicated that they are LGBTQ friendly.
Use existing behavioral surveillance data sources (e.g., NHBS) to identify social/sexual network locations. Use existing PrEP uptake and adherence data (e.g., Project PrIDE).