HOPE Project Abstract
Abstract
Labyrinth Global Health, Inc. (Labyrinth), a women-owned NGO supporting HIV military health services across Africa, will provide technical assistance to the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) directly and through the AIDS Healthcare Foundation-Sierra Leone (AHF-SL), a local NGO, to strengthen their HIV prevention, care and treatment program. Labyrinth will work with the RSLAF to implement a comprehensive HIV program in line with national and DHAPP/PEPFAR orientations to contribute to the epidemic control of HIV, focused on the following technical areas: Care and Treatment: HBHC-Adult Care and Support; HVCTHIV Testing Services; HTXS-Adult Treatment; Prevention: HVOP-Other Sexual Prevention; Health Systems Strengthening: HLAB-Laboratory Infrastructure; and HVSI-HIV Strategic Information. Activities will support the prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections (STI) among military personnel, families, and civilian communities. During this four-year effort, Labyrinth will support the provision of care and treatment and scale up military antiretroviral therapy (ART) to achieve the 90-90-90 goals for HIV epidemic control, working with the military to build community capacity and robust military outreach systems for HIV prevention, care and treatment, framed by a strategic information framework that monitors program outputs, outcomes, and programmatic impact. Labyrinth will work directly with the RSLAF to aggressively scale-up testing services in an effort to ensure that 90% of HIV+ military personnel in high HIV-burden military community locations are diagnosed and know their status. Labyrinth will work with RSLAF to ensure that identified positives are linked to HIV treatment and will follow their progress through person-centered HIV monitoring and case surveillance, which will be an important measure of success for the RSLAF program. Labyrinth will support RSLAF in this “HOPE” project by reaching 9000 priority populations (PP) with the standardized, evidence-based interventions designed to promote the adoption of HIV prevention behaviors and service uptake (PP_PREV), supporting RSLAF in the delivery of HIV Testing Services (HTS) to 3531 military and 11,208 civilians, ensuring they receive their test results (HTS_TST) and are effectively linked to care (HTS_LINK), with proper documentation. We will train and support RSLAF on HTS, particularly with regard to Index Case testing (ICT) and self-testing, providing high-yield testing to reach 893 military personnel through ICT and ensuring they receive their results (HTS_INDEX). We will support RSLAF in providing 1414 military and 1087 civilian adults and children who are currently receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) with appropriate care and treatment services (TX_CURR). Labyrinth will ensure that 842 military and 634 civilian adults and children who have been newly diagnosed with HIV are enrolled on ART (TX_NEW). We will also ensure that 100% of ART patients have a suppressed viral load with results (<1000 copies/ml) documented in the clinical data system within the past 12 months (TX_PVLS). Labyrinth will work with the military and other PP to select targeted “hotspot” locations. We will engage key military outreach workers and Community Health Workers (CHW) to organize military outreach teams in a community approach, using standard case management tools to design and evaluate services to reduce HIV risk and vulnerability. CHWs will provide psychological, social, and prevention services support to both HIV positive patients and their families, and work with military peer educator outreach teams to educate participants on prevention services, such as sensitization and the provision of condoms. Labyrinth will also support the military to strengthen their monitoring systems, allowing collection of quality data on program indicators to inform evidence-based decision making, including quarterly performance and weekly data validation.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Oct 22, 2020
- Source ID
- N002442010009
Entities
People
- Karen Saylors
Organizations
- United States Department of Defense