Hope and Help Center of Central Florida

Medical case management: medical case managers provide a range of client-centered services that link clients with health care, psychosocial, and other services. Coordination and follow-up of medical treatments are components of medical case management. Services ensure timely, coordinated access to medically appropriate levels of health and support services and continuity of care through ongoing assessment of clientskey family members' needs and personal support systems. Medical case management includes treatment adherence counseling to ensure readiness for and adherence to complex hiv/aids regimens. During the 2021-2022 fiscal year, medical case managers conducted meetings with 512 clients, 81 of which were new to the agency, totaling 4,842 hours during the fiscal year.

Prevention: prevention program consists of health educators offering educational presentations, training and interventions and outreach to minority and underserved Central Florida communities. The prevention program has targeted populations and individuals in need of hiv services through counseling, testing and referral(ctr). All people testing hiv+ are immediately referred to peer mentoring, medical case management, and medical care. Programs include: outreach and prevention services focused on men who have sex with men(msm) and racial/ethnic minorities, hiv counseling, testing and referral(ctr), support groups, condom distribution to both individuals and businesses, monthly hiv 101 courses, peer mentoring, youth education and outreach, and a host of ancillary services (e.g. Legal services), designed to enhance the quality of life for individuals living with hiv. Business responds to aids (brta) initiative funded by the Florida department of health: this initiative involves agency staff training local hairdressers and bartenders about how best to talk to their clients/patrons about hiv/aids prevention, and where to refer them for hiv testing. Hope and Help Center is targeting men who have sex with men (msm) and racial/ethnic minorities in high prevalence areas within orange county. Following the anti-retroviral treatment access to services (artas) model, consumers are supported by linkage professionals until such a time as they are fully connected to both medical care and to a medical or a non-medical case manager. Hope and Help will use centers for disease control and prevention ps21- 2102 funding to provide targeted hiv testing, comprehensive prevention for persons with hiv, as well as hiv-negative persons at increased risk for hiv infection, condom distribution, community outreach and engagement, community education, social media and marketing campaigns, and linkage to care and support services for those infected with hiv and those at-risk for infection. The Florida department of health funded ehe (ending hiv epidemic) grant provides hiv counseling, testing, and linkages to a minimum of 300 minorities living in orange county every month. Prevention staff also provides hiv outreach, education and testing at jails, homeless shelters, juvenile detention facilities, churches, schools, methadone clinics, and other areas where people gather. Hope & Help's prevention department also houses the first legal syringe service program in orange county. Our syringe service program is inpsired by the infectious disease elimination act (idea), which makes it legal to exchange syringe in an approved location. At Hope & Help, we provide free, anonymous syringe exchange services for people who inject drugs. We provide new needles and accept used syringes in exchange for safe disposal. What you walk away with is a sense of Hope, preparedness, clean syringes, safe injection supplies, referrals for treatment when you're ready, and a supportive environment where people who inject drugs and those close to them are treated with dignity, compassion, and respect. Idea orlando is sponsored by the Florida department of health and gilead focus. In addition, Hope & Help offers a new trans and gender diverse life skills program to transgender and non-binary individuals. Our team not only offers hiv/sti testing and links them into medical care but enrolls them (when eligible) to our life skills classes: a 10 week course where participants will be incentivized to attend different classes with diverse topics such as: finance 101, how to apply make-up, work readiness, sexual health, and more.

Referral for healthcare and support services specialists: referral for healthcare and support services specialists provide advice and assistance in obtaining medical, social, community, legal, financial, and other needed services. In the orlando ema, referral for healthcare and support services specialists primarily conduct annual assessment of the eligible consumer to determine service needs, provide referral and related activities to Help the consumer obtain needed services. During the 2021-2022 fiscal year, referrals for healthcare and support services specialists met with 963 clients, 241 of which were new to the agency. A total of 5,282 hours were provided to the clients during the fiscal year for referral for healthcare and support services specialists.