1. World Hepatitis Awareness Day Events July 28th – 29th, 2011
Broward County, Florida
“New Frontiers”

2. Participating Agencies: Minority Development & Empowerment
Holy Cross Hospital – Community Outreach
Red Hispana & Broward House

3. The Goal:
To enhance and improve access to resources for people living with Hepatitis C in Broward County through the creation of a community focused testing & “linkage to care” network.
Create awareness
Educate about the disease
Provide resources
Test & refer to care when appropriate

4. Expertise of Staff:
Edith Garcia – Previously Hepatitis Manager for BCHD
Evelyn Morales – Prior STD/DIS w. BCHD, & CRUSHH, Case Management Dir.
Regine LeFevre – Physician in Haiti, Prior BCHD Admin.
Lisa Agate – Prior BCHD AIDS Program Dir. for over 25 years
Kim Saiswick – Nurse, over 20 years in community programs
Audrey Clarke – Mobile Unit Tester for Holy Cross Hosp. -Outreach
Joey Wynn – 20 years of Grant writing & data analysis
HIV Testing Staff – Decades of cumulative HIV Testing experience between all the various agency’s staff

5. Collaborating Partners/roles:
All agencies held community health fairs & provided locations for testing
MDE provided linkage to Caribbean Communities, Translation services, Hepatitis expertise & training for all agencies
Holy Cross Hospital’s Outreach Team provided the mobile testing Unit as well as HIV testing staff and a network of specialists for referral & follow up
Red Hispana provided radio advertising formats for all events

6. Collaborator’s locations:
Broward House:
Central & South Central county
MDE: north-central county
HCH Outreach Team
provided mobile testing unit at Lauderhill Mall and various other locations

7. The importance of Diversity in: Staff & their experiences
Communities we approached:
Caribbean populations
Staff at healthcare agencies / providers
Substance using communities
Community at large (Malls, Faith Based, etc…)

8. Teamwork = Success!
The Substance Use Recovery group created a Health Fair, and had Dr. Puga from CDTC Present along with the BCHD STD Clinic Manager as well as a variety of other topics, with lunch, give aways & screenings

9. food and drinks equals Success!!!!

10. Incentives = Success!!!

11. Staff Trainings & Certifications:
Orasure - Rapid Test
Hepatitis 101

12. Innovative Marketing & Awareness campaign:
Alternative methods more favorable to Caribbean communities to get the word out
Agencies having experience dealing with these communities (both MDE & Red Hispana) have greater credibility & trust
Flexible, reaching more people across greater time span and locations than traditional handouts / flyers / word of mouth from staff could reach

13. Family centered approach worked for MDE:

14. “Teachable Moments” We met to identify most important Data elements
Team Created intake forms
Agreed on Analysis Goals
Database and staff to provide management of data

15. Referrals, follow up and aftercare network, from Holy Cross Hospital’s network of providers / PAPs etc… = Success!!!!

16. The Numbers:
Total people reached: 799
485 received materials & talked about Hep C.

17. The Numbers:
Total People Tested: 288
Total Positives: 11

18. Next Steps: Emphasize to clients stay in contact with Care Providers
Send out information for Hepatitis to all agencies
Be a conduit for requests & maintain Hepatitis referral network
Work with Holy Cross & other hospitals for indigent care primary & specialty coverage, & linkage follow up
Develop strategies for creation of support groups
Identify communities most in need for these services