Members Present: Billy Fields, Erin Harned, Graham Harriman (Gov’t Co-chair), Jennifer Irwin, Emma Kaywin, David Martin, Karen McKinnon, Freddy Molano, MD, John Schoepp, Finn Schubert (Co-chair), Marcy Thompson (Co-chair), Julio Gomez, Norine Di Giulio, Charmaine Graham
DOHMH, PHS, NYS and Other Staff: David Klotz, Cristina Rodriguez-Hart, Noelisa Montero, Arley Pelaez, Dave Ferdinand, Mary Irvine, Scott Spiegler
Welcome/Introductions/Moment of Silence/Public Comment/
Review of the Meeting Packet/Review of the Minutes:
Finn opened the meeting, followed by a roll call, ice breaker, and a moment of silence led by Jennifer. Cristina reiterated that this would be her last meeting at the NAC staff person because she is moving to a position in the HIV Care and Treatment Program. She will remain involved in the needs assessment as facilitator of the epi profile workgroup. The March NAC meeting minutes were approved with no changes.
Public Comment
John felt that the agenda for April, where the time for workgroup report outs to the full committee was moved to the end of the NAC agenda was worse than the order of previous months where this part came earlier. There was a discussion that it was moved there to facilitate obtaining information on what each workgroup had discussed in their breakouts to include this information in the minutes. Members were asked to put their opinion in the chat box. Several members expressed having no preference and two Council staff expressed wanting to keep the new order to facilitate note taking. Finn announced that we would keep the new order, in light of the staff changes occurring, but that when workgroups went into their breakout groups facilitators should orient members to what they would be discussing that day.
Revised needs assessment timeline
Due to the staffing changes for NAC, and the need to have the full NAC review the findings of each workgroup, as well as drafts of the needs assessment report, the timeline is being extended from July to December 2022. The Council is working to hire a consultant by this summer to write the needs assessment and who would work with NAC in the fall. Workgroups will have through July to finish reviewing their data sources.
Needs assessment workgroups
The workgroups went into breakout rooms and continued their discussions with facilitators. Everyone then came back and each group briefly reported out on what they had discussed.
Resource inventory
Graham reported that they reviewed maps of Ryan White service sites organized by geographic area created by PHS. Looked at a yet-to-be-finalized table of funding allocations by service category and by borough to understand distribution of funding. There’s poor coverage in Far Rockaway and in southern Brooklyn for many services. There is a need for more mental health services in Queens and southern Brooklyn. There are no mental health services in Staten Island. Food and nutrition coverage is sparse especially in Brooklyn and Queens. Health education and risk reduction (i.e., Positive Life workshop) has no coverage in Queens and the Bronx. Limited legal services in Queens and early intervention services are limited in Brooklyn. Poor housing coverage in the Bronx and Queens. No legal coverage in the Bronx. Medical case management needs more Bronx and Queens sites; there’s too much coverage in Manhattan. More mental health needed in the Bronx and overly invested in Manhattan. For psychosocial services there is underinvestment in the Bronx and Queens. Harm reduction underinvested in in the Bronx and Queens, but overinvested in in Manhattan.
Provider Capacity
Scott reported that they are in the final stages on the provider capacity survey with AETC, and they worked on developing communications for distributing the survey to Ryan White providers. The large part of the discussion was on stigma reduction and the work of Cristina Rodriguez-Hart and the STAR Coalition and what’s needed in terms of stigma reduction, like training and capacity tends to focus on 1 topic at a time and is not intersectional, defining the issues has become a major task for organizations, how do they track it, how to execute it thoughtfully. Karen brought up structural competency with its focus more on experiential learning and how to make cultural shifts within an organization. They discussed ways to expand their ideas of what a training can be and should be, and how to incorporate experiential learning into training curricula. Need to include how covid has impacted the workforce, making retainment and recruitment difficult. They’ll research how to address stigma in the workforce, finding trainings and methods that are more intersectional and include structural competency. Would like to hear from the providers on the context. They will invite DOHMH escalate team to come and talk with them. David will generate questions for escalate team. Karen will send out resources on structural competency and summary of Project Fresh. Scott will reach out to TTAP, evaluations from providers to understand what’s needed and the context.
Service needs and gaps
Erin reported that the workgroup covered healthcare (2 parts-HIVprimary and home care), household items and clothing, childcare, legal, and linguistic services. With these 5 service areas they have covered all service categories that the workgroup set out to cover for the needs assessment. So, next month they will review key points from all data briefs reviewed so far since they have some new workgroup members.
Epi Profile
Noelisa reported that they went over documents covered so far this year with the workgroup and discussed key points, information gaps, and specifically the recommendations. Next month Wendy Patterson from NYSDOH will present on unmet need, as defined by NYSDOH, and on several priority populations, and the workgroup will discuss implications of the data with her.
NAC adjourned at 3:05pm.
