Minutes of the
CONSUMERS COMMITTEE
Chairs: Charmaine Graham, Marcelo Maia
Consumer-At-Large: Raffi Babakhanian
Monday, September 23, 2024, 2:00PM – 4:00PM
Minutes
Committee Members Present: Marcelo Maia Soares (Co-chair), Steven Wilcox (Co-chair), Raffi Babakhanian (Consumer-at-Large), Asia Betancourt, Randall Bruce, Billy Fields, Lawrence Francis, Yves Gebhardt, Charmaine Graham, David Klotz, David Martin, Natasha Martin, John Schoepp, Annette Tomlin, Rob Walker
Staff and Guests Present: Doienne Saab Kimbirly Mack (Planning Council); Melanie Close, PhD, Ho Ki Mok (NYC DOHMH); Abraham Omeyoma
Agenda Item 1: Welcome/Introductions/Moment of Silence/Minutes
Marcelo and Steven opened the meeting, followed by introductions and a moment of silence. The Committee congratulated Steven on his appointment as co-chair of the Committee. The minutes of the July 22, 2024 meeting were approved with no changes.
Agenda Item 2: Suicide Prevention Month Presentation
In observance of Suicide Prevention Month, Melanie presented data from an LGBTQ mental health study. The data was collected in 2023 and showed that LGBTQ people have higher rates of serious psychological stress, particularly transgender men. LGBTQ people are more likely to have received mental health treatment and non-cisgender people are more likely to report unmet mental health care needs. 2.4% of all adults reported suicidal ideation, but the rate is 6% among LBTTQ adults. Committee members asked about data on immigrants, gender breakdowns among LGB populations, the shortage of providers (esp. post-COVID), how LGBTQ-identified providers help overcome barriers to mental health care and data specific to people with HIV.
Agenda Item 3: Planning Council Outreach Strategies
Raffi, Marcelo and Steven led a discussion to follow up the brainstorming session in July on outreach strategies for improving outreach strategies to better engage PWH, particularly underrepresented populations, specifically youth. Ideas that were captured on a “whiteboard” included: 1) Educate/inform what the planning council is/does; 2) Get people involved in consumers committee; 3) Encourage people to apply for the council; 4) Find commonalities and connections with consumers, their needs, make PC relevant to them and why they should be involved; 5) Broaden outreach to non-clinical staff who have relationships with consumers; 6) Increase focus on involving underrepresented pops inc. youth (13-29) and creating a welcoming / comfortable environment for their involvement.
Comments and suggestions from the Committee included:
- Conducting outreach to organizations that serve youth (including their CABs)
- Develop strategies that meet young people where they are and use their language
- Create materials that speak to youth, including through social media (Tik Tok, etc.)
- Invite youth to speak directly to the CC and have them create their own goals for what they want to accomplish
- Develop strategies to retain youth involvement (e.g., incentives)
The Committee decided to form a sub-committee to work specifically on engaging youth. When the new community coordinator starts, he will lead the effort to expand and improve outreach and recruitment. Volunteers included Asia, Rob, Charmaine, Raffi and Doienne.
Agenda Item 4: CAB Next Steps
Raffi, Marcelo and David M. reported on the recent Quality Management Sharing Session held at the NYS AIDS Institute where they presented the recent work of the Committee on CABs. It was the only consumer-led report at the session and stressed the importance of using CABs to strengthen the mission of an agency. Agency staff there provided feedback on their own experiences and challenges with CABs, raising some of the same issues that came up in the July provider meeting. The Consumers Committee stressed that there needs to be mechanisms for providing technical assistance on CAB implementation and effectiveness and offered to work with agencies to promote the revised best practices guidelines.
Agenda Item 5: Public Comment / Other Business
Rob expressed concern that lack of in-person meetings means less opportunity for meaningful interaction. David K. reported that there will be a number of hybrid meetings this year.
The next meeting of the Consumers Committee will be on Tuesday, October 15 by Zoom, followed by an in-person meeting on November 18 (with a Zoom option).
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned.
