Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is recommended for all people with HIV to improve and preserve their health and to reduce transmission of HIV to others. Increasingly, rapid ART starts have become a clinical and public health priority, with the Department of Health and Human Services Panel on Antiretroviral Guidelines for Adults and Adolescents recommending that ART be started as soon as possible after HIV diagnosis. Definitions of what constitutes a rapid start of ART vary; the most stringent is also termed immediate ART and occurs when ART is prescribed on the same day an HIV diagnosis is delivered. This fact sheet reviews the potential benefits and rationale for rapid ART starts, outlines potential pitfalls, and offers practical, evidence-based tips on ART selection for rapid starts.
Learning Resources — Publications
Cultural Adaptation of Measures and Tools for Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) Data Collection
This publication was designed as a companion resource to Ready, Set, Go! Guidelines and Tips for Collecting Patient Data on Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (SOGI) to explain the importance of SOGI data collection to identify and address the unique needs of sexual and gender minority patient populations, with special consideration for culturally and linguistically diverse patients who are part of LGBTQIA+ communities. This guide will help healthcare staff to identify procedures to translate and adapt SOGI data collection questions and patient education materials for multilingual patient populations accurately and affirmatively, with considerations for Spanish-speaking LGBTQIA+ patients as an example. The recommendations in this publication will assist health teams in planning next actions to implement culturally and linguistically affirming practices that are community informed and integrated throughout the health experiences of multilingual, multiethnic, and racially diverse patients.
Transgender Health & Medical-Legal Partnerships
In 2018, we published our fact sheet, Transgender Health & Medical-Legal Partnerships. Though the approach to using medical-legal partnerships to meet the needs of transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people remains a core tool for addressing the social determinants of health for this population, the legal and legislative landscape has changed drastically in recent years. In addition to navigating insurance coverage; medical decision-making; legal name and gender marker changes; and discrimination in education, employment, housing/shelter, and public accommodations; TGD people now face stepped-up efforts to restrict their access to health care more broadly, including denial of gender-affirming care, and restrictions on accessing public spaces and speech.
- Filed under
- Transgender Health
LGBTQIA+ Glossary of Terms for Health Care Teams
Becoming familiar with terms used by lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and other sexual and gender minorities (LGBTQIA+) can help you provide patients with the highest quality care. In this glossary, you will find terms relevant to the health care and identities of LGBTQIA+ people.
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- Introduction to LGBTQIA+ Health
Increasing Equity in Pain Management, Substance Use Disorder Treatment, and Linkages to Care
The purpose of this Resource Guide is to support health center care teams in providing equitable, compassionate, high-quality care for patients in the contexts of pain management, substance use disorders (SUDs), and meaningful linkages to care. Inside, you will find actionable strategies and resources to help your care team reduce health disparities and advance health equity among minoritized and stigmatized people who, due to historical and structural injustices, are more vulnerable to undertreatment and mistreatment of pain and SUDs.
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- Behavioral Health
Why Weight? Diabetes Prevention and Care Learning Collaborative
The Education Center’s Why Weight? Diabetes Prevention and Care Learning Collaborative focused on engaging teams from health centers across the US to undertake practice transformation conducive to diabetes care in LGBTQIA+ communities.
Throughout this publication, we briefly describe the structure and objectives of the learning collaborative and highlight promising practices for diabetes prevention with LGBTQIA+ patients. This publication provides a pathway forward for health centers to better serve LGBTQIA+ patients and to lay a solid foundation for diabetes prevention and care that is culturally inclusive and affirming.
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- Diabetes and Heart Health
Integrated Behavioral Health Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse People: An Affirming, Harm Reduction, and Trauma Responsive Approach
Integrated behavioral health care cannot eliminate all barriers and health inequities experienced by transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people. It can, however, serve as a bridge to overall wellness, and can fulfill functions associated with primary care, and in doing so, can represent a low-barrier, harm reduction method of meeting patients’ needs. It can provide a setting to address mental health concerns that may arise from the process of negotiating one’s identity as a TGD person, being denied certain forms of health care, or navigating spaces where one’s value is diminished. Integrated behavioral health care can also help to facilitate the initiation and management of gender-affirming hormone therapy, thereby reducing the need for referrals to specialty providers, eliminating wait times, and enhancing patient and provider satisfaction.
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- Behavioral Health
- Transgender Health
Body Image, Eating Disorders, and LGBTQIA+ Identities: Supporting Youth, Older Adults, and Non-binary People
Eating disorders have steadily increased in the U.S. population, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Although once considered a problem for white wealthy girls and women, eating disorders and related body-image disturbances are now known to reach across all races/ethnicities, socio-economic levels, and gender identities. Research suggests that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people have a high prevalence of eating disorders and negative body image that may require culturally responsive approaches to screening and counseling. This clinical publication provides information and strategies for improving the capacity of health centers to screen, assess, and address issues related to eating disorders and body image among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and all sexually and gender diverse (LGBTQIA+) people, with special considerations for LGBTQIA+ youth, older adults, and non-binary people.
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- Behavioral Health
HIV Prevention Learning Collaborative Summary
From December 2020 through April 2023, the National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center developed and facilitated three HIV prevention learning collaborative cohorts involving 29 organizations and 79 participants. Participants represented a range of role groups within health centers and worked in diverse locations around the country. Overall, participants described a significant amount of knowledge gained from the sessions and satisfaction with the training. Two of the cohorts overlapped with the Covid-19 pandemic; the learning collaborative’s virtual format was conducive to pandemic limitations on in-person gatherings, and the program provided a strategy to continue building capacity for PrEP during and despite the pandemic. Key lessons from the learning collaborative program include the importance of training about logistical and programmatic aspects of PrEP, the feasibility and desirability of engaging multidisciplinary teams in PrEP training, balancing education about scientific advancements in PrEP with content on implementation and addressing HIV risk perception and adherence. Going forward, we aim to create new content on risk perception and adherence and institute systematic evaluations of the learning collaborative cohorts to facilitate ongoing innovation and improvement.
Mpox: A Guide for Front-line Clinicians
Human mpox (monkeypox) is an infection characterized by rash and fever. Mpox has historically been reported in Central and Western Africa, and in early 2022, additional cases were identified in Europe and North America. By late November 2022, more than 80,000 cases had been identified in 110 countries, most of which had never previously reported the infection.
- Filed under
- HIV/STI Treatment and Prevention
