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Enrolled Clients in 10 Adolescent-Targeted Projects
for HIV/AIDS Services:
A Cross-Cutting Evaluation of Special Projects of National Significance
Health Resources and Services Administration
Executive Summary
In October and December 1993, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS) Program funded 10 national demonstration projects targeting adolescents and youth for HIV/AIDS services.
This report is the second in a series that evaluates the efforts of the 10 projects, and considers the characteristics of the young people who were enrolled into services during the first two years of funding.
More than 2,600 unduplicated individuals were enrolled into services provided by the 10 adolescent SPNS projects between December 1993 and March 1996. The enrolled individuals represent a broad range of characteristics and needs. The adolescent SPNS demonstration projects have engaged youth in care who have been identified as living with HIV, and those who are at-high-risk-for-HIV. In addition to information known about all enrolled youth prior to and at the time of entry into services, information from a Brief Natural History Interview was collected from 314 enrolled youth. These data provide more in-depth information about the characteristics and needs of this subset of the enrolled youth. Initial findings from this detailed psychosocial interview indicate that the youth have a number of unmet service needs, and that many present a number of important psychosocial issues that are relevant to their care.
Examination of the flow of clients from outreach to enrollment indicates that a lower percentage of youth who were initially contacted through high-intensity individual outreach enroll in services than those recruited through other entry points (such as agency outreach or self-referrals). However, those youth who do enter the system through individual outreach tend to have a different pattern of needs than those reached in other ways. The findings presented in this report suggest that the individuals coming into the programs through individual outreach are more disenfranchised, and that efforts are necessary to engage these youth in the care system to guarantee their access to, and inclusion in, the services system.
Qualitatively, the 10 adolescent SPNS projects have identified a number of successes of their enrollment efforts. Programs successfully enrolled increasing numbers of youth from their target populations. Increased outreach efforts were seen as a critical facilitator in engaging youth with HIV, and those at-high-risk-for-HIV, in care. The programs have identified a number of lessons learned, including the importance of certain program elements seen as necessary to maintaining youth in care.
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