Community Engagement Core D

CORE D Abstract/Summary The Community Engagement Core (Core D) will provide a range of services to Center investigators to link with our community partners and to train investigators and providers to implement a broad range of interventions for treatment of mental illness, HIV, and their comorbidities. Specifically, Core D will: 1) provide linkage to community partners where we have established relationships using expert services to support successful implementation of HIV intervention projects, 2) provide expert consultation on the design of HIV Intervention projects with consistent consideration of integration of both biomedical and behavioral science, and 3: provide expert training that imparts knowledge and skills related to biomedical and behavioral scientific approaches to HIV interventions. Many projects that Core D will support will be completed using established and standard methods, and we have an explicit preference for using manualized treatments in “real world” settings and comparative effectiveness and implementation science research methods. In general, Core D will utilize personnel effort that is supported by the Core for pilot projects and preparation of funding proposals, with the subsequent funded grants providing direct support of the resulting collaborative research effort. We have established a monthly HIV recruitment support group in collaboration with CFAR. The recruitment support group aids with recruitment efforts and has evolved into a joint effort within Penn including PMHARC, CFAR, HVTN and Martin Delaney Collaboratory, as well as other local universities including Temple and Drexel University. Core D is dedicated to building a portfolio over time that will combine comparative effectiveness research, translation and implementation science, and community-based participatory research (CBPR) methods. Building on the unique capacities available at Penn and in the Philadelphia area, the Community Engagement Core will collaborate with other centers and institutes such as the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics in the Wharton School and the Annenberg Public Policy Center to conduct cost- effectiveness and other policy relevant analysis to plan for targeted dissemination to influence public health policy regarding treatment of HIV among persons with psychiatric conditions. We will aid in grant proposal preparation; and potential users of the Core will be alerted of the resources. We also provide a home for the Community Advisory Board (CAB) which will continue to assist with recruitment of participants for research trials and dissemination of findings in the community.