Improving Adolescent Health Through State-level Collaborative Initiatives

Florida

Topic: HIV Prevention

AAP chapters in four states are focusing special attention on preventing HIV infection in the adolescent population. Florida, Georgia, Maryland, and New York placed a priority on adolescent HIV prevention after a team of professionals attended a workshop in September 2005 as part of the AAP Adolescent HIV Prevention Project, funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Adolescent and School Health (CDC-DASH). During the workshop each multidisciplinary team developed an action plan for improving collaboration and coordination of HIV prevention services for youth in their state.

The Florida team has concentrated on making HIV and reproductive health information more available to providers of adolescent health care in Florida. The team is collaborating and sharing resources with other interested parties including representatives from the Department of Health, the Department of Education and the Florida AIDS Education and Training Center. They plan to bring the information and resources they collect back to the group to facilitate education and future collaboration. The team is gathering information and resources regarding adolescent reproductive health with a focus on HIV and STD prevention. The FL AAP chapter is developing a portion of their Web site to locate the resource information and link to other Web sites and materials. One area of the site will be geared toward professionals and another toward teens. Team member, Mobeen Rathore, MD, was awarded $5,000 from the Community Pediatrics Enrichment Program (CPEP) of the University of Florida/Jacksonville, Department of Pediatrics, to support the project's activities and its evaluation. In addition, the team is working with public health staff to determine ways to isolate HIV/STD data in the adolescent population. For more information about the project, contact Lisa Cosgrove, MD, FAAP, at lcosgrove@cfl.rr.com.

BACK: State Projects