Background:It is estimated that there are currently more than 46,000 Los Angeles County residents living with HIV-1. People of color and the poor in South Central and South East Los Angeles not only share a disproportionate burden of this illness but often encounter seemingly insurmountable barriers to appropriate care and treatment. The care they receive is often fragmented and typically does not address the diverse mental health issues that they face. Model:This proposal seeks to develop a new model mental health program called The Mental Health SPECTRUM (services for HIV Prevention Education Care Treatment, and Research for Underserved Minorities), which will decrease barriers to care, provide a wide range of mental health services, improve quality of life and decrease higher risk behaviors affected by or living with HIV, coordinate all HIV-related mental health care in the region, and train mental health providers to provide high quality care. Institutions: SPECTRUM, which will be will run by the Department of Psychiatry of Charles R. Drew University and is the collaborative effort of all of the facilities which provide medical care to people living with HIV in South Central and South East Los Angeles, including the King/Drew Medical Center OASIS Clinic for HIV, OASIS Satellite Clinic for Women and Transgender People with HIV, the OASIS Satellite Clinic for People with TB and HIV, the King/Drew Medical Center Early Intervention Program, the Watts Health Foundation, and the T.H.E. Clinic for Women. The administrative, clinical, and evaluative teams, composed predominately people of color, and include gay men of color, women, and people affected by and living with HIV, reflect the diversity of the target populations and have extensive experience in providing mental health care to people affected by or living with HIV/AIDS. Approach: Three teams, composed of mental health therapist and part-time psychiatrist will be assigned to the various SPECTRUM clinics, and become integral parts of the medical team, and provide consultation, mental health assessments, care and treatment right in the medical clinics. The program utilizes and unites the wide array of psychiatric, medical, gynecologic, pediatric, neuropsychiatric, and substance abuse treatment services available in the South Central region to provide optimal medical care to people affected by and living with HIV/AIDS. We believe that this approach will become a model for those wishing to provide quality mental health services to underserved people of color and others affected by and living with HIV/AIDS.
