Several professors in the Boston University School of Social Work will help monitor an HIV and AIDS treatment program in Springfield over the next five years, after the Tapestry Health Systems program received a $2.5 million grant from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The program, called ‘La Voz,’ will target the city’s Hispanic community, one of the most deeply impacted communities in Springfield, according to a press release. Program staff will use academic analysis in order to provide new information and a greater awareness about the need to be tested for the disease, and heroin users will be the program’s main target, according to the release. BU students will also be involved in the project.
‘What’s unique about our collaboration is there is such a strong link developing the services and working with them,’ Lundgren said.
Despite being 71st nationwide in population, Springfield is 24th nationally in HIV/AIDS patient status. While accounting for one-fourth of the city’s population, the Hispanic community maintains over half of the population in Springfield living with HIV/AIDS, according to the release.
‘This is a population that has received almost no preventative health services,’ said Dr. Lena Lundgren, director of the School of Social Work, in the release. ‘What we learn about how to reach this hard-to-reach, at-risk group will serve as a model for other cities, and a model for how academic research can inform and strengthen community services.’
The majority of the grant will fund education and supplies, prevention case management, medical intervention, referrals and outreach programs, according to the release. The release says services provided in homes or other informal, non-clinical settings will use ‘indigenous workers’ with close cultural, racial, gender and ethnic ties to the selected community due to the need for a more active outreach program based on the community.
Twenty-eight percent of the grant will provide funds for the evaluation team, whose members include Lundgren, BU Professors Sarah Bachman and Melvin Delgado and Northeastern Professor Hortensia Amaro, according to the release. Tapestry Health will collect the participation data for analysis.
‘This organization really provides excellent opportunities to places that otherwise wouldn’t be reached,’ Lundgren said.
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