Grant-Health Dept for elimination of Syphilis 10-19-1999 - 9e

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13 !"'~ a) Outreach worker activities--The outreach workers will be liaisons among the health department, community-based organizations, and other local agencies which serve populations at high risk for syphilis. These agencies will include drug treatment centers, county and city j ails, Local housing authorities, and the parks and recreation departments. Outreach workers will focus attention on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of syphilis. They will work with the agencies to insure that clinical and prevention services are provided to those at highest risk.. For example, they may work with the housing authority and the parks and recreation departments to provide educational sessions and periodic serologic testing. A housing office may agree to become a distribution point for condoms. Routine testing and educational sessions may be set up at the jails and drug treatment centers. The outreach worker will provide transportation to those who need syphilis clinical services and are otherwise unable to access them. The syphilis outreach workers will also provide direct outreach services to the at-risk population. The workers will coordinate with other community-based health outreach workers in the county to provide group outreach at least tvG~ice per month to high risk areas in each county. The outreach worker will provide one-on-one syphilis risk reduction education in the at-risk communities several times per week. Condoms will be distributed during each outreach. One- on-one or small group demonstrations on how to properly use a condom will be standard. Blood samples will be collected by the outreach worker when desired by the clients to allow for serologic testing far syphilis without a clinic visit. In order to reach persons at highest risk for acquiring syphilis, the outreach worker will work flexible hours, since persons at greatest risk .may be most accessible during the evening hours. The outreach worker will establish a close working relationship with state and local DIS. The outreach worker will attend twice monthly `=chalk talks" u~zth the DIS and other HIV/STD regional staff . This -will keep both the outreach worker and DIS informed of each others' activities. This will also assure that "hot spots" are identified immediately and plans made to provide screening and cltistering~in the area. The outreach worker will also assist DIS with identiuication and location of high risk individuals, such as marginal partners, suspects, or. assbci:ates who may not otherwise be found. However, the outreach worker will not replace any ead.sting DI5 activities; this project will be used only to enhance current activities. The regional and local DIS will continue to provide disease intervention services as outlined in the 1998 Continuation Application STD Accelerated Prevention Campaign Grant. The outreach worker will also work with local health department staff to insure that providers are educated about those individuals at risk and how to best provide them services. This may include cultural sensitivity training, STD treatment information, STD diagnostic techniques and client-centered counseling. Vdhen needed, state resources for providing such training will be used. The Local health departments will provide STD clinics that are accessible and convenient to those at risk. Evening andlor weekend hours may need to be considered for infected persons to access treatment. b) Clustering techniques--Local DIS will use clustering. techniques when inter~newing syphilis cases in the target area. These techniques have proven effective at identifying cases in Guilford County, where trading sex for drugs was a common activity in syphilis patients. Since this risk