What HIV/AIDS Case Management Approaches Bring About Positive Client Outcomes? Results from ConnectHIV

Abstract

ConnectHIV was a public-private partnership between the Pfizer Foundation and 20 AIDS Service Organizations (ASOs) in 10 high prevalence states. Five of the ASOs, funded to link persons living with HIV into high quality care and treatment services, used a case management (CM) approach. The ASOs utilized various strategies in their CM interventions which were conducted in diverse organizations and geographic areas. An outcome evaluation was conducted that used a repeated measures design collecting data at baseline and at two follow-ups—either 2 or 3 months and again at 6 months. Results showed that the clients who participated in CM interventions made significant positive changes across the five outcomes (knowledge of HIV disease management, medical adherence, viral load, CD4 count, and perceived health) from either baseline to the first follow-up and/or the second follow-up. Results also showed that clients at certain ASOs made significantly stronger gains than those in others which plausibly could be attributed to the use of certain CM strategies as well as organizational factors. More multisite research needs to be conducted on HIV/AIDS case management to identify the most effective strategies and contextual factors that can bring about positive client outcomes.

KEYWORDS:

• AIDS service organizations
• case management
• ConnectHIV
• evaluation
• HIV/AIDS

Acknowledgments

While preparing this article, the authors' salaries were supported in part by a grant from the Pfizer Foundation as part of its ConnectHIV program.

The authors would like to thank the ConnectHIV grantees and their clients for their contribution to the work discussed in this publication. This includes staff at the AIDS Care Services: Jesse Duncan and Katherine Foster; staff at Cal-Pep: Carla Dillard Smith and Jamila Shipp; Foothill AIDS Project: Marie-France Francois and Angela Chung; Positive Impact: Danny Sprouse and Coti Perez; and Philadelphia FIGHT: Hannah Zellman and Kevin Moore. We would also like to thank Atiya Ali Weiss from the Pfizer Foundation for the opportunity to provide evaluation support to the ConnectHIV project and to David Holtgrave at Johns Hopkins University and to Sally Munemitsu and Janice Brown at TCC for their support throughout the evaluation.

Notes

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