Policy

Title page

Policy

CDC HIV prevention policy identify care indicators for mitigating the risks of HIV and providing enhanced care to the victims. African Americans are mostly affected by HIV. The disease is having devastating impacts on blacks and undermines quality of life. Access to inadequate healthcare facilities or proper care increase risks of HIV CITATION Cha173 \l 1033 (Howe, et al., 2017). African-Americans are at high risks of developing HIV CITATION Eug16 \l 1033 (McCrray, 2016). In south 53% of the HIV patients are black who lack awareness about HIV.

Social action theory will be used for addressing gaps between populations. It offers plan for improving provisions of quality care (Traube, Holloway, & Smith, 2011). SAT theory focuses on comprehensive plan for providing enhanced care to specific population. It is effective for identifying the demographic risk factors CITATION Dor12 \l 1033 (Traube, Holloway, Schrager, & Kipke, 2012). Wider healthcare gap prevails among black and white Americans CITATION Cha173 \l 1033 (Howe, et al., 2017). African-Americans are facing high risks but receive low care CITATION Dor12 \l 1033 (Traube, Holloway, Schrager, & Kipke, 2012). Evidence suggests that, “the South still accounted for nearly half (47%) of the 15,807 people diagnosed with HIV in the U.S. who died in 2016” CITATION CDC19 \l 1033 (CDC, 2019).

HHS initiative of ‘Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America’ proposed a multi-years program for preventing HIV and aims at reducing it by 75% in the next five years. The plan will be initiated in 2020 after state offers adequate funding, resources and technology. The goal of the policy is to enhance local HIV workforce and establish on-the ground teams that will involve local experts. The initial stage is focused on diagnosis HIV on time for offering adequate care and help to the victims CITATION CDC19 \l 1033 (CDC, 2019). The policy is aiming at providing complete awareness to the population about HIV and its symptoms. They are encouraged to visit clinics for health examinations. Screenings are also offered to larger population of identifying the disease symptoms and for taking timely action. It is also focused on increasing the use of viral suppression. The dominant risk of HIV is low percentage of viral suppression.

The alternative policy include; preventing HIV in African-American Gay bisexual Men. This policy is focusing on providing awareness and care to the African-Americans who are gay and bisexuals. The number of bisexuals and gays with HIV are increasing which suggests adopting efficient strategy for mitigating future risks CITATION CDC19 \l 1033 (CDC, 2019). The implementation of the policy will require adequate funding because it is a national level plan that will offer extended care to the community. Due to increased HIV cases in the south, this policy will aim at reducing the rates. This policy is focused on working with corporative agreements for providing extensive funding for mitigating the challenges of HIV. Certain awareness campaigns are developed such as ‘stop HIV stigma’ and ‘start talking stop HIV’ for increasing acceptance among society.

CDC has intensified work for a decade for reducing HIV cases in south. Extensive funding is offered to the healthcare department for managing the issue. State and local health hospitals conduct surveillance and HIV prevention by the help of investments. Community based organizations are offering services to those who are at high risks. Innovative development projects are also working for providing care and supporting the affected populations.

Cultural values that impacts the performance of the programs include conservative attitudes of black families which discourage people from visiting clinics. The resistance of black community undermine the efforts of preventing HIV at large scale.

Trade-offs of policymakers exhibits concerns for managing funds because a larger population needs screenings and prevention. This has direct impact on the state’s budget that will lead to deficit.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY CDC. (2019). HIV in the Southern United States. National Center for HIV/AIDS.

Howe, C. J., Dulin-Keita, A., Cole, S. R., Hogan, J. W., Lau, B., Moore, R. D., et al. (2017). Evaluating the Population Impact on Racial/Ethnic Disparities in HIV in Adulthood of Intervening on Specific Targets: A Conceptual and Methodological Framework. American Journal of Epidemiology , 187 (2), 316–325.

McCrray, E. (2016). Driving down HIV disparities among African Americans . CDC .

Pellowski, J. A., Kalichman, S. C., Matthews, K. A., & Adler, N. (2014). A pandemic of the poor: social disadvantage and the U.S. HIV epidemic . Am Psychol , 68 (4), 197–209.

Traube, D. E., Holloway, I. W., & Smith, L. (2011). Theory development for HIV behavioral health: empirical validation of behavior health models specific to HIV risk . Psychological and Socio-medical Aspects of AIDS/HIV , 23 (6).

Traube, D. E., Holloway, I. W., Schrager, S. M., & Kipke, M. D. (2012). Utilizing Social Action Theory as a Framework to Determine Correlates of Illicit Drug Use Among Young Men Who Have Sex with Men. Psychol Addict Behav , 26 (1), 78–88.