A collaborative effort is required to reduce Shelby County’s new HIV infection rates to zero by 2030, said representatives from End HIV 901. “The Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan For America (EHE)” consists of four strategies that touch on the areas of diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and response, and is a “whole-of-society” initiative coordinated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services identified Shelby County as a “priority county” in 2020 in its effort to end the HIV epidemic by 2030.
Elizabeth Propst, community outreach coordinator of EHE and the department of infectious diseases at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. explained that not only is this a “living document,” but it is a community document as well. The Flyer spoke with Propst about how the plan was developed, stakeholder engagement, and implementation of the vision.
Memphis Flyer: How was the EHE plan developed?
Elizabeth Propst: The Connect To Protect, also known as C2P, is a community coalition here in Memphis. The manager and director at the time, Dr. [Aditya] Gaur, saw potential, and it started with that. I believe that broke down from the national announcement declaring that this is a particular topic that needs to be addressed, because new infections are occurring each day and they’re significantly increasing even with knowing how the community has advanced with education. Connect To Protect was the identified coalition to create this plan in 2019, and it carried into 2020. Stakeholders from across the community came together and identified hard-hit areas that impact Memphis in particular, and when it comes to HIV infections. The plan was solidified in December 2020.
What are some things that are specific to Memphis when it comes to implementing this vision?
The biggest vision is being in the Bible belt. The HIV community is very stigmatized. A lot of misconceptions out there, really starting with what barriers we can bridge with focusing on the faith-based community as well the stigma piece.
Even outside of the faith-based community, when it comes to stigma, the education piece isn’t there. So that brings you into education with youth and adolescents. It’s kind of a trickle effect, where it does continuously impact different areas. And then you go into medical professionals who are involved with patients in the HIV community. Looking at the appearance, if patients are taking their medication or not. If they’re not taking medication, what’s going on with that?
Do you think there has been any growth and progress in dispelling myths about transmission? What are some areas that still need growth ?
I definitely think that the community has made some progress, but there’s a lot more work to do, and honestly that comes from being out in the community and getting into spaces and areas where people who don’t know what they need to know, when it comes to HIV. That’s just being out and attending health fairs or just different spaces of different community events that may be going on.
Earlier in the year, I spoke with someone from The Haven, and we talked a lot about how people in underserved communities are a little hesitant to get tested and receive information. How do you all approach education about HIV and awareness campaigns within those underserved communities?
I can’t speak for everybody, but for me specifically, the more that I observe the different settings that I sit in, the more you definitely want to cater to that specific setting. For example, I have two events that I am doing this weekend, and one of them is with a church affiliate, and the other one is with a youth affiliate. The conversations that I have with individuals at the church event may change depending on the population and the nature of the people who are in attendance. Honestly just learning your crowd, and as well as kind of knowing what is most appropriate and what is most effective to catching an individual’s eye.
Was there anything that we didn’t cover that you wanted to give insight into that you think our readers may benefit from?
As far as the community action plan for End HIV 901, the community advisory board is comprised of different stakeholders in the community and different advocates who are essentially nominated as community champions if you will to oversee this community action plan, so this is a community document. The document will be three-years old at the end of the year, but being that we are an ever-evolving community, this document needs to be continuously reviewed. Therefore, that is something that the community advisory board does oversee – a part of this work. Especially within the start of this year, they’ve had an influx of presentations coming in from our EHE community partners who are out there doing the frontline work. You had mentioned The Haven, that’s definitely one of those community partners that we do work with. We are nearing the end to where we are going to be digging our heels deep in the ground and moving forward to update this plan.
