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How the Plan Was Developed

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) issued their new guidance for comprehensive jurisdictional HIV planning, they included several areas for local communities to consider in regards to improving and filling gaps in their current continuum of care.  The process used to develop the Houston Area’s new and first-ever joint plan for HIV prevention and care was a reflection of this guidance.

Building on six overarching themes from the guidance – community involvement, evaluation, prevention and early identification, filling gaps in care and reaching the out-of-care, and coordination of effort – a unique organizational structure for developing the plan was adopted and then populated with both prevention and care stakeholders. This structure included five topic-specific Workgroups based on the themes from the guidance and a Leadership Team to oversee the process as a whole.

From September 2011 to March 2012, 71 individuals,  including representatives of 56 agencies and groups, people living with and at risk for HIV/AIDS, and other concerned community members convened at least monthly to discuss the essential elements of an ideal system of HIV prevention and care for the Houston Area.  They identified the following:

• Trends – in the field, in the epidemic, and in the community as a whole – that are influencing the current system and must be addressed if progress toward an ideal system is to be made;

• High-impact solutions to address these trends and to serve as the local “best practices;”

• A vision for HIV prevention and care services in the Houston Area;

• Goals, objectives, and other benchmarks by which progress will be measured; and

• Topic-specific strategies and activities for achieving goals and meeting challenges toward the development of an ideal system of HIV prevention and care.

A month-long Public Comment Process was also conducted using surveys, key informant interviews, and focus groups.  Lastly, concurrence and approval of the document was sought from both local HIV Planning Bodies.  In the end, 111 individuals (at least 27 percent of which were people living with HIV/AIDS) and 61 agencies contributed to the process.

Click here for a complete list of individual and agency contributors.