Topic: Engagement in Care

The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program focuses on getting more people living with HIV/AIDS engaged in their own care. Despite notable progress in outreach efforts, one in five people with HIV still do not know they are infected. HRSA/HAB has identified best practices in engagement in care--ranging from outreach to bring new persons into care as well as activities to re-engage those who have dropped out of care.

The resources on this page include strategies for reaching out to new clients and retaining those already in care, including ways to enhance the clinic environment.

Tools and Publications

• Improving Linkages and Access to Care, HAB SPNS Update, January 2012.
• Breaking Barriers, Getting YMSM of Color Into Care: Accomplishments of the SPNS Initiative, HAB SPNS Update, December 2011.
• Connecting to Care: Addressing Unmet Need in HIV
  CTC tools include dozens of successful methodologies for helping to connect or reconnect people living with HIV/AIDS to appropriate and ongoing medical care. Examples from agencies located across the country are offered -- ranging from medical support services to client-centered approaches. Available in Spanish.
• Retention in HIV Care: A Guide to Patient-Centered Strategies
  Outlines retention strategies including enhancing the clinic environment, offering patient education, and focusing on patients' strengths for success in treatment. Included are practical tips and a "teaching tools" section for key examples of the skills-building strategies in action. Mountain-Plains AETC. May 2011
• Supporting Patients in Care
  Robin Bidwell, RNC in Guide for HIV/AIDS Clinical Care, HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau. January 2011
• Finding and Re-engaging Unretained Patients in San Diego, CA HIVQUAL Brief Vol 1, No 4. 2011 (PDF - 799KB)
• The Costs and Effects of Outreach Strategies that Engage and Retain People with HIV/AIDS in Primary Care, report analyzing the outcomes and costs of the HAB Outreach Initiative. March 2010.
• Enhancing Linkages: Opening Doors for Jail Inmates, HAB SPNS Update, May 2008.
• The Care System Assessment Demonstration Project: A HRSA -- Sponsored Effort to Identify and Reach People Living with HIV Who are Not in Care Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved, August 2007 18:3 (Supplement).

Web-Based Resources

• in+care Campaign
  Major new initiative to improve retention in care in Ryan White funded agencies. Participating providers and agencies receive support in implementing an evidence-based client retention program.
• AETC Retention in Care Resources
  Topic page from the AETC resource library
• AETC HIV Testing Resources
  Topic page from the AETC resource library