Have you ever wondered what the literature says about community-based organizations’ (CBOs) impact on the HIV sector? How do CBOs support people living with HIV? What makes the services and programs CBOs provide unique?
The Ontario HIV Treatment Network has just completed a Rapid Response examining the question: What is the impact of community-based organization (CBOs) in supporting individuals living with HIV?
Key Take-Home Messages:
- Since the beginning of the epidemic, CBOs have displayed cultural competency and have gained the trust of community members, allowing them to target their services to people living with HIV who are less likely to use mainstream health care services.
- CBOs are able to help “hard-to-reach” populations, ethnic minority youth and men who have sex with men.
- CBOs offer a wide range of services to assist people living with or at risk of HIV, including culturally adapted programs to help people along the HIV care continuum.
- CBOs support treatment adherence.
- CBOs have demonstrated economic value, have prevented new HIV infections, and have saved the health care system money
Take a look at the summary document for more key findings and the literature that was collected.