Posted by From the DSN Newswire (Office of the White House Press Secretary)
On Friday, the White House Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP) released a report summarizing feedback from 14 community discussions that were held across the country and though an online submission process. The report, Community Ideas for Improving the Response to the Domestic HIV Epidemic, will be used to inform the development of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) that is currently underway.
Despite the diversity in settings and respondents, a core set of common themes emerged across all of the recommendations including: improving access to care, reducing stigma surrounding HIV, and coordinating HIV prevention and treatment. The report can be found at: www.whitehouse.gov/onap.
“We recognized the importance of community involvement early on in our strategy development, which is why we traveled across America and asked for online submissions to hear directly from people on the front lines of the HIV/AIDS epidemic,” ONAP Director Jeffrey S. Crowley said. “The result is today’s report, which will serve as a resource as we strive to develop a new strategic approach to tackling the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the United States and take steps to better coordinate the federal government’s response.”
At the beginning of his Administration, President Obama instructed ONAP, a component of the Domestic Policy Council (DPC), to develop a National HIV/AIDS Strategy that addresses the HIV epidemic in the United States. The President outlined three primary goals for the strategy:
1. Prevent new HIV infections;
2. Increase access to care and optimize health outcomes for people living with HIV; and
3. Reduce HIV-related health disparities.
To re-engage the American people in responding to the domestic HIV epidemic, ONAP developed a comprehensive approach for gathering public input and ensuring that ideas from individuals living with HIV, as well as other stakeholders and interested parties, were reflected in the Nation’s roadmap for moving forward. As part of that effort, a series of community discussions were held in the following locations from August through December 2010:
Atlanta, GA
Washington, DC
Minneapolis, MN
Albuquerque, NM
Houston, TX
San Francisco, CA
Los Angeles, CA
Columbia, SC
Oakland, CA
Virgin Islands
Jackson, MS
Ft. Lauderdale, FL
New York, NY
Caguas, Puerto Rico
/