Youth Services Navigation Intervention for HIV+ Youth Being Released From or At-risk for Incarceration

Study Summary

HIV prevalence among incarcerated youth living with HIV (YWH) is three times that of the general population and one in seven of all persons with HIV experience incarceration each year. Furthermore, less than half of all youth in the United States with HIV achieve HIV viral load suppression, due to poor retention and adherence to anti-retroviral therapy (ART). Existing linkage and retention services are insufficient to meet the acute needs of youth with HIV who are at risk for incarceration, recently experienced incarceration or arrest, or those nearing reentry from a correctional facility. This holds particularly true in the high-need period following release from incarceration. The LINK2 study will develop and implement a youth service navigation (YSN) intervention to improve linkage and retention among YWH at risk for incarceration and with current incarceration and arrest histories and analyze results to address existing gaps in the literature. The investigators will enroll 142 YWH, aged 16-25 (+364 days), incarcerated in Los Angeles and Chicago jails and through community providers serving those at risk for incarceration and YWH with recent incarceration and arrest histories. The investigators will randomize participants to the YSN intervention (n=71) vs. a usual-care control group (n=71). The youth services navigators (YSNs) will assist with addressing immediate unmet needs such as housing, transportation, and food prior to clinical care and ongoing; will guide intervention participants to a range of community services to support progress along the continuum of HIV care; and will provide direct ART adherence support. The proposed study has two Primary Specific Aims: 1. Adapt an existing peer navigation intervention for adults to create a Youth Service Navigation (YSN) intervention sensitive to sexual and gender minority (SGM) culture that guides youth to needed services along the continuum of HIV care. This intervention combines medical, substance use and me

Primary Outcome

Linkage to care HIV care is measured as HIV primary care provider visits; time to 1st post-release HIV care visit. Measures will involve survey and electronic record sources; self-reported measures derived from Outreach Initiative and HCSUS instrument. Retention in HIV care is measured as number of visits and missed visits to HIV primary care providers. Measurement tools include surveys and electronic record sources; self-reported measures derived from the Outreach Initiative and the HCSUS instr

Interventions

• BEHAVIORAL LINK2 Youth Services Navigation Intervention