Workshop: Testing and Linkage to Care Plus (TLC+): Implications for Women and Families
by Sonia Rastogi
This workshop focused on increasing understanding of TLC+, the term, the term’s history, and the NIH research study, while sparking discussion on implications in the community and the role of TLC+. In his presentation, Walt Senterfit, “activist-epidemiologist” from the LA County Department of Public Health and CHAMP, highlighted the need to understand the history of TLC+ and its different terms. TLC+ is both a term for a prevention and care strategy with many sub-meanings depending on who you are talking to, and a term for a 3 year NIH research study set to start in early 2011 in Washington, DC and the Bronx, NY. Discussion and emphasis settled around the human rights concerns of TLC+, namely confidentiality and an individual’s right to refuse treatment, the clinical implications of scaling up care and treatment services to keep up with the scale up of HIV testing services, program integration, and implications for women and families who are under/uninsured. For me, what is still a place of tension is my gut reaction to TLC+ as I first experienced it with “Test-and-Treat’s” outspoken community viral load agenda, and its evolution within the community as a strategy to integrate prevention and care to increase adherence to medication and decrease clients falling out of care. Presenters at the workshop included Loren Jones, PWN, Walt Senterfitt, CHAMP, Rona Taylor, NWAC, and Carole Treston, AIDS Alliance for Children, Youth, and Families. The panel was moderated by Naina Khanna from WORLD/PWN.
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