Teaching HIV prevention in the community
The HIV/AIDS health professionals at Children's Memorial are
committed to reducing the transmission of HIV from mother to child and among
at-risk adolescents in the Chicago area.
To accomplish this, we:
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Conduct HIV
prevention workshops throughout the Chicago area.
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Present HIV prevention
materials to at-risk youth at middle and high schools.
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Teach governmental agencies and medical providers about HIV.
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Go out into the
community to share HIV prevention information with those most at-risk youth in places
where they live, work and hang out.
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Assist
parents with disclosure
issues to schools and assist adolescents with disclosure to their
partners.
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Work with community and
youth groups to identify at-risk youth and offer free HIV/STD counseling and
testing, and provide educational materials.
-
Conduct special programs using HIV-affected peer
educators (both adults and teenagers) as
speakers.
For more than a decade, our program
has collaborated with the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the Illinois Department
of Children and Family Services (DCFS) as a resource for professionals
needing assistance with school disclosure for HIV-infected children and adolescents citywide and
in the suburbs. Together with CPS,
we have organized conferences for middle and high school administrators,
nurses, teachers and staff on HIV sensitivity and management of the condition in
the school setting.
Educational in-services for school staff help to ensure that the school experiences for
HIV-infected children and adolescents are more favorable, with fewer breaches of
confidentiality.
For more information, or if you want the HIV education and outreach team to
present to your group, please contact Ann Sanders at
773.880.3679 or msanders@childrensmemorial.org