On December 7, 2023, HIV care service providers and PrEP navigators from around Alameda and Contra Costa county gathered at the California Endowment for East Bay Getting to Zero’s first combined Regional Case Managers and PrEP Navigators meeting. As we move to a more status neutral approach, the intention of these meetings is to serve as a place for those working in HIV prevention and care spaces come together, network, get access to important updates and problem-solve the challenges they face in their work.
Judy Eliachar’s housing updates can be found below
Regional Case Managers and PrEP Navigators meeting December 2023
- Kenny Hall presented the East Bay Warm Handoff and Retention Protocol document.
- Jeovanie Sanchez, PrEP Navigator from Lifelong, and Chris Dang, PrEP Navigator and Case Manager from Asian Health Services both shared frontline experiences of new diagnoses and linkage
- Takeaways:
- “Community support has helped amplify my life. Shame, stigma, guilt makes you feel alone.”
- Much more important to address social issues before [we] address HIV care
- “Having a case manager helps patients feel less alone, there was a team already in place to provide support.”
- Takeaways:
- Earl Jefferson from Alameda County shared his contact information for case managers to use when they are unable to contact a patient. Earl can help locate patients, provide cross-county referrals, provide dual disclosure services and help link new patients to mental health services.
- You can reach Earl either by email (Earl.Jefferson@acgov.org) or by phone: 510-268-7640 (office) 510-507-4382 (cell)
- Please allow 24 hours for a response
- Participants were invited to divide up into small groups to discuss one of the following things and report back to the large group:
- Name/Organization/Role/Pronouns
- What are your best practices for disclosing a positive result?
- What are some of the biggest challenges/barriers that you encounter with linkage?
- Where can you/your agency improve your linkage/warm handoff process?
- If you attended the meeting and haven’t filled out the follow-up evaluation form, please take a few minutes to do so now. Thank you, and we’ll see you in February 2024 for our next meeting!
