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Date of Report:
01/2005
Source:
Southeast ATEC
Clinicians working with HIV-positive patients face challenges in providing comprehensive clinical care for patients with long-standing, concurrent health needs. In recent years, regional AETCs have focused on increasing the availability and accessibility of HIV clinical consultation. With Minority AIDS Initiative (MAI) funding, the Southeast AETC (SEATEC) is providing this intensive and personalized form of capacity building to mental health and drug treatment professionals.
Although SEATEC has sponsored a number of Level I (didactic lectures) and Level II (skills-building workshops) training events for clinicians in partnership with various state-funded mental health and substance abuse projects, building on this baseline training through Level IV clinical consultation groups is the foundation of SEATEC's strong capacity building. Specifically, mental health and drug treatment professionals are provided the opportunity to discuss options for challenging clinical cases as well as administrative and system barriers to care with clinical peers and facilitators.
These Level IV clinical consultation groups have supported a core group of 14 Atlanta, GA clinicians since February 2002 (through Title I funds). SEATEC has also formed clinical consultation groups in Alabama, Kentucky, and rural Georgia, presently serving 18 clinicians.
One SEATEC capacity-building specialist expanded and began offering consultation groups in Atlanta for African-American and Latino clinicians 15 months ago. MAI staff host frequent sessions for these clinicians working with HIV-positive consumers in a variety of clinical settings. These groups provide professional peer support and consultation for participants, and permit SEATEC to incorporate participants' knowledge and wisdom into planning for MAI training.
Together, these two initiatives enhance SEATEC's educational mission by providing ongoing clinical consultation and support to individual clinicians who treat patients with complex clinical needs. The result is improved clinical skills and knowledge for these individuals and an increased capacity for agencies to offer comprehensive, integrated care.
Contact information may be obtained from the SEATEC website,
www.seatec.emory.edu
, or email
seatec@emory.edu
.
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