United Bronx Parents, Inc.
HIV Services
This program offers intensive case management services for persons living with HIV/AIDS and their partners and families. Services include an in-depth assessment of each client's needs and assistance in connecting with a range of quality services in the community, including primary medical care, emergency care, entitlements such as Social Security, Food Stamps, Home Relief or AFDC and the Division of AIDS Services (DAS), a variety of transitional and permanent housing options, mental health services, substance abuse counseling and treatment services, permanency planning and other family support services, nutritional services and social services.
Case Managers help clients coordinate all of these services they may need, provide office-based services and home visits, advocate with service providers to make sure that clients receive all services for which they are entitled, provide transportation and escort to appointments in the community and work with clients' family members and partners as needed.
Program staff also provide HIV risk reduction counseling and education, as well as life skills training. The goal of the HIV Intensive Case Management Program is to empower clients to utilize the existing network of HIV services stabilize their health and increase their capacity for independence.
All of the services of UBP, including HIV support groups, prevention workshops and hot meals are available to clients of this program. Clients with young children can also avail themselves of on-site babysitting services.
Eligibility: Clients must be HIV-positive or have a diagnosis of AIDS and have active Medicaid cases. They cannot be currently enrolled in any other COBRA case management program.
The MSA program is intended to provide HIV outreach, and prevention education to the various programs of the agency which do not have a formal HIV effort in their structure (including La Casita, Mrs. A's Day Treatment, the Day Care Center and the Homeless Hot Meals Program) as well as outreach and education to the community-at-large, targeting parent groups, local youth, injection drug users, other alcohol and drug users and other high risk persons.
Participants are provided with a series of Basic HIV Education Workshops which include HIV risk reduction, the importance of early medical intervention, and information regarding how to live longer and healthier with HIV/AIDS. An Advanced Risk Reduction workshop series provides prevention skill building for persons needing assistance in negotiating condom use with sexual partners and learning harm reduction and relapse prevention techniques. Participants receive assistance in obtaining confidential HIV counseling and testing and a variety of placements in harm reduction, recovery readiness and substance abuse treatment programs upon request. Persons who are already HIV infected are linked with UBP's HIV Case Management and Supportive service programs.
The MSA program also provides Case Management services to HIV positive individuals who do not have current Medicaid entitlements or who are not Medicaid eligible, including recent immigrants and parolees. Case Management services are similar to the COBRA program described above and include transportation services, advocacy and service coordination.
Eligibility: Anyone participating in UBP programs or from the community is eligible for prevention services. Case Management services are provided to HIV-positive individuals without active Medicaid and to a small number of "high risk" persons who have tested HIV negative or not been tested. High risk persons can receive case management services for up to six months.
The Women's Supportive Services program provides a variety of support services for HIV positive women and their families, including crisis intervention, hospital visits, daily support groups (including a Spanish Speaking Women's Group and a Gay and Lesbian Support Group and a Family Group, where women can bring their partners and other family members), recreational activities (including weekly arts and crafts groups, recreational trips, movies and special events), individual supportive counseling and home/hospital visits and assistance with emergencies, including emergency homemaker services. Women's sexual partners are also provided services.
The program is open from 9:00 A.M. until 5:00 P.M. and offers an informal day program format which provides participants with a safe haven where they can participate in structured activities and receive peer support on a daily basis. On a regular basis, services are also provided on-site by other community based HIV service organization, including nutritional workshops, permanency, planning, etc.
A light breakfast and hot lunch are served daily. Additionally, a child care center is available to provide drop-off babysitting for parents who are receiving services.
Eligibility: All HIV-positive women and their partners/families receiving UBP services are eligible.
The Peer Training Institute is a collaborative project with five other HIV service organizations sponsored by the New York City Department of health to recruit, train, support and place peer HIV prevention workers. SUNY Health Sciences Center is the lead agency and collaborating agencies include United Bronx Parents, Inc., the Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition Against HIV/AIDS, the William F. Ryan Health Center, Henty Street Settlement, the AIDS Service Center of Lower Manhattan and the Staten Island AIDS Task Force. Training for both peer workers and staff is provided by SUNY and by each agency. Additionally, collaborating agencies each specialize in providing training to institute members on their particular target population. UBP's target population is Women in Communities of Color.
UBP's project also provides a variety of direct HIV prevention services including street outreach in the South Bronx community, outreach to income maintenance centers and homeless programs, condom and bleach kit distribution, educational workshops on HIV risk reduction, individual prevention counseling to support behavior change and referrals to HIV testing, substance abuse services. HIV services and concrete social services. Peer Educator teams are placed in UBP's Day Care Center, La Casita, UBP Central Intake and the Homeless Hot Meals program. They provide outreach and risk reduction counseling to clients in those programs. Peer Evaluators also provide individual risk assessments and follow-up interviews to program participants to evaluate the effectiveness of program efforts and document behavior change.
The project will also station Peer Educators* in non-collaborating agencies and seeks to increase the use of peer workers in community-based organizations. The ultimate goal of the project is to prepare peer workers for entry level employment in the field of HIV prevention.
Eligibility: Candidates for Peer Workers must be drug-free for a minimum of one year and have completed UBP or other treatment or service programs, be able to devote twenty hours per week to training and commit to a six-month internship. Direct prevention services are open to everyone.
UBP recently received a grant from HUD's Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS program to develop a transitional housing program for homeless persons with HIV or AIDS who are active alcohol or other drug users. The program will provide both emergency and transitional housing to up to 40 single adult men and women. Services will include case management, recovery readiness counseling, placement in harm reduction and substance abuse treatment programs, HIV education, survival skills training, access to primary care, entitlements and supportive services and placement in permanent housing.
The program is scheduled to open in early Spring of 1997. It will be located at a new facility provided by the New York State Department of Social Services/Homeless Housing Assistance Program located at 974 Prospect Avenue, Bronx, New York 10459 (La Casita IV).
The New York City Department of Health's Bridge To Treatment Program maintains a unit at Mrs. A's Place on a full-time basis and provides confidential HIV counseling and testing, tuberculosis testing, hepatitis testing and testing for sexually transmitted diseases. Patients are provided with follow-up counseling and referrals to Department of Health clinics, Partner Notification services, risk reduction programs and HIV programs as needed.