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The Hispanic Outreach program targets the mental health needs of Spanish-speaking individuals living with HIV. The outreach has two primary components: 1) an urban project designed to enhance the extent to which Latinos living with HIV have increased access to mental health care and are better engaged with mental health resources as a result of outreach and mental health promotion activities and 2) a rural project designed to assess, and subsequently enhance, the capacity of two of Georgia’s highly HIV-impacted rural areas to respond to the mental health care needs of Latinos living with HIV.
These needs are addressed by a combination of services, which include an in-depth mental health assessment followed by linking clients with volunteer mental health professionals for no-cost, individual counseling, and/or enrolling in group therapy. The services focus on the role of mental health services in supporting the participant’s development and sustainability in a comprehensive system of HIV-related care. The primary focus is on the mental health needs of individuals who are faced with mental health diagnoses, homelessness, acute psychiatric illnesses, substance abuse, and sexual addiction and compulsivity.
Unique features of this type of outreach include bilingual therapists, a Spanish language telephone helpline, and overall understanding of the cultural factors affecting Latino men and Latina women who are HIV-positive.
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