Montefiore Medical Center announces new grant to address Bronx HIV care

Psychiatrist or professional psychologist counseling or therapy session to male patients suffering from mental health problems. due to economic failure after the COVID-19 pandemic. PTSD Mental health.
Montefiore Medical Center recieved a $2.5 million grant to address social barriers to HIV treatment in the Bronx.
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Montefiore Medical Center announced Oct. 14 that it has been awarded a $2.5 million grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HSRA) to help patients address challenges and barriers to HIV care.

The Bronx Health Outcomes Project, established through the grant, will develop a new model for connecting people living with HIV to resources for issues that compound negative health outcomes like poverty, food insecurity and intimate partner violence.

The Bronx consistently has the highest rates of new HIV diagnoses and HIV related deaths per 100,000 individuals out of all of five boroughs, according to a report from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Among those with HIV in the Bronx, people living in areas of very high poverty were diagnosed with new cases of HIV at the highest rates, according to the report.

However, people diagnosed with HIV in the Bronx had higher rates of “timely initiation of care”, or starting treatment within 30 days of a diagnosis, than the city as a whole.

Montefiore’s grant-funded Bronx Health Outcomes Project will support work already being done by the Division of Allergy and Immunology at the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM), one of the nation’s largest immunology centers, according to its website.

One of just five grants awarded in the country, the funds will go towards the addition of social workers, community health workers and patient navigators to the existing team that treats both children and adults living with HIV, according to the press release.

The project will include a partnership with Lincoln Medical and Mental Health Center with the goal of connecting 400 patients to resources and removing barriers to treating and keeping HIV undetectable. Montefiore Medical Center will also be educating and raising awareness about HIV resources with the community via print and social media.