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The MSM of color track addresses the intersections of HIV, HCV, STIs, and LGBT health among MSM of color, particularly among racial and ethnic minority groups in underserved and disenfranchised communities. Sessions in this track stress the importance of building the capacity of the healthcare workforce through multi-stakeholder informed learning and curriculum development; engagement and collaboration informed by quantitative and qualitative data; peer navigation programs based on community-based participatory action research-informed approaches; and stakeholder engagement supporting greater uptake in HIV prevention approaches among underserved perspectives.
Black men who have sex with men (Black MSM) are among the highest risk groups for contracting HIV in the United States. Estimates indicate that nearly a quarter of Black MSM who are seronegative at age 18 will have HIV by the time they are age 25, and data from the CDC indicate that young Black MSM are almost four times more likely than their White or Hispanic peers to be HIV positive. This session provides health care workers and other stakeholders valuable skills in understanding how providers can overcome internal biases and link BMSM with HIV and those at high risk for HIV into testing, treatment, and care. This session will detail best practices to increase provider health literacy, enhance cultural mindfulness, increase collaboration amongst providers statewide, and develop and implement quality improvement projects as a multi-regional approach for improved health outcomes for Black MSM. It is essential for community-based organizations, federally-qualified health centers, and other organizations engaging Black MSM in any HIV prevention and treatment service.
Participants will hear of a training that helps providers breakdown and overcome dominant, heternormative notions of Black masculinity, which often intersect with racism and violence, resulting in powerful stereotypes about men of color. Participants also will learn how that MSM of color described as “hard to reach” often are blocked by psychosocial and structural barriers determinants, such as racism, stigma, lack of cultural mindfulness, and other psychosocial barriers. Providers must address these barriers to effectively engage this population in services. Participants also will learn about a hands-on coaching and peer support program that addresses structural issues in HIV care and reduces HIV disparities experienced by Black MSM.
Black bisexual, gay, and men who sex with men (BGM) are less likely than their white counterparts to access and use biomedical interventions, such as pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) to reduce their lifetime risk of acquiring HIV. Organizations serving this population often describe BGM as a “hard to reach high risk population”.
In this session, participants will learn innovative approaches to engaging MSM across in HIV prevention, treatment, and support services through the recruitment, hiring, and training of appropriate team members; using data to drive HIV prevention practices; and engaging and retaining trained members of the client population in prevention, education, testing, treatment and social support services. We will also highlight how to create a network and base of engagement in areas where YMSM live, are educated and employed at a higher rate.
Participants in this training will learn how the lived experiences and social determinants of Black men who have sex with men across can inform how they appraoch and are impacted by peer navigation. Speakers will discuss training elements essential to successful peer navigation training: HIV 101, HIV testing, social determinants of health, motivational interviewing, drug resistance and adherence to HIV treatment, entry into and retention in care, stigma, and implicit bias. Themes of holistic health, and their relationship to social network support and peer navigation, will be outlined.
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