Community Prevention and Intervention Unit (CPIU)
Improve Health, Impact Change
Our Vision
The Community Prevention and Intervention Unit of UT Southwestern's Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine is dedicated to the prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted conditions, through partnerships of professionals and community. We work to promote health and equality by implementing screening and testing of HIV and STIs, linking individuals through a network of care and support services, providing educational activities, and conducting community-based participatory research.
Our Services | |
|---|---|
| HIV/STI Testing | We provide rapid HIV/STI testing and screening at no cost to the client. |
| Linkage to Care | We support client’s engagement into HIV care. |
| PrEP/nPEP | We increase engagement in PrEP and nPEP services. |
| Condom Distribution | We distribute condoms across vulnerable North Texas communities. |
| HIV Outpatient Care | We provide outpatient care to people with HIV. |
| Dallas Family Access Network | We participate in a community network of clinical and support services for people with HIV. |
| Intimate Partner Violence Advocates | We reduce the negative health impacts of IPV and HIV. |
| Community Advisory Board | We encourage community participation and project accountability of community services and programs. |
| Community-Based HIV Testing | We provide on-site HIV testing to venues such as; schools, apartments, barber shops, health fairs, and other community organizations. |
| Education/Intervention | We provide community education and interventions to reduce the impact of HIV for underserved communities. |
| Peer Program | We facilitate and support people with HIV through peer advocate coaching. |
| Community Collaboration | We partner with community organizations to provide a safety net for the North Texas community. |
Our Programs
- The Prevention Program
Our HIV prevention, testing, and counseling services are funded through a contract with the Texas Department of State Health Services. The Prevention Project’s mission is to reach individuals who may be at risk of acquiring HIV infection; test them for HIV and bacterial sexually transmitted infections (i.e., syphilis, gonorrhea, or chlamydia); and link them with community partners who can provide pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and other prevention services as needed.
This program prioritizes testing at-risk populations, especially among Hispanic and Black men who have sex with men between the ages of 18 and 30, Black women, transgender persons, and injection drug users (IDUs). Community engagement activities provide the program an opportunity to educate the community-at-large and increase awareness of the ongoing HIV epidemic, recruit for testing, and implement prevention services that include a robust condom distribution program. All services are free to participants/patients and provided in a manner that is culturally competent, linguistically sensitive, and age appropriate.
- Dallas Family Access Network (Dallas FAN)
The Dallas Family Access Network (DFAN), an intervention program within the Community Prevention and Intervention Unit funded by an HRSA Ryan White Part D grant, provides high-quality care for women, infants, children, and youth (WICY) affected by and infected with HIV. By providing access to family-centered medical care and support services, DFAN ensures coordinated, comprehensive, and culturally and linguistically competent services directly and through partnerships with HIV outpatient clinics, support services, and other HIV organizations. DFAN reduces new HIV infections by improving the availability of prevention resources, increasing access to care, and advancing the quality of care for people living with HIV/AIDS. DFAN has served the WICY population for more than 30 years.
DFAN current subrecipients:
- Access and Information Network: AIN is a multicultural, faith-based, nonprofit HIV/AIDS service organization that serves over 2,000 HIV positive men, women, children and youth by providing medical transportation services, translation services, HIV/AIDS prevention education and risk reduction sessions, outreach services, adult respite care, prepared meals, and volunteer and pastoral services.
- AIDS Healthcare Foundation: AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) is a Los Angeles based nonprofit provider of HIV prevention services, testing, and healthcare for HN patients. Funds provided through Ryan White Part D will be critical in helping AHF to cover the gaps in current funding and continue to provide high quality comprehensive outpatient medical care services for people living with HIV/AIDS.
- Texas A&M College of Dentistry/Baylor College of Dentistry (anyone know if they have a website): has been providing oral health care to WICY who are HIV positive in the North Texas area for the past 13 years. This funding has provided more than 1,500 HIV positive patients quality, low-cost dental care.
- Children’s Medical Center Dallas : Children's Medical Center has been named one of the top pediatric hospitals in the country. The AIDS-Related Medical Services (ARMS) clinic provides comprehensive medical and social services for HIV-exposed infants and HIV infected children and youth and is the only clinic in North Texas dedicated exclusively to providing primary care to children exposed to and infected with HIV.
- Prism Health North Texas: Services offered include outpatient medical care, medical case management, non-medical case management, medication assistance, HIV prevention, outreach and testing, HIV Health Education & Risk Reduction, HIV clinical trials, and substance abuse/mental health outreach and treatment. Prism provides clinical and case management services at two locations to more than 2,500 underserved HIV+ men, women and youth.
- Brighter Tomorrow: Empowers victims of domestic violence and sexual assault by providing emergency safe shelter and support services and to reduce violence in our community.
- Safe Connect – Intimate Partner Violence Prevention
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a pervasive, life-threatening crime that affects millions across the United States. Studies have shown that victims of IPV are at higher risk of contracting HIV. SafeConnect is a program that reduces the negative health impacts of IPV, including HIV in women, by providing HIV counseling and testing, outreach referrals to medical services, linkage to PrEP, and IPV education to empower and build coping skills. This program is funded by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health and the Office of Women’s Health for “Preventing HIV Infection in Women through Expanded Intimate Partner Violence Prevention, Screening, and Response Services.”