Intensive Case Management Initiatives

Corrections Case Management
Perinatal Case Management

About the Corrections Case Management Initiative:
The Corrections Case Management Initiative began in January 2007 and has 68 clients to date. This initiative is funded by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH), National AIDS Fund (NAF), and AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC). The goal of the initiative is to provide intensive case management to the re-entry population to ensure they are receiving adequate HIV and other primary medical care. Services are pre-arranged with the client prior to release, when possible, or immediately after release for the best possible transition back to the community. The program intends to enhance the likelihood of the client not returning to prison, increase health outcomes, and reduce mortality rates. It also strives to work with clients to help coordinate services for mental health and substance abuse treatment, housing, employment, counseling, and family counseling.

Current Status:
The Corrections Case Management Initiative is currently accepting clients.

Eligibility Requirements:
To be eligible for the program, you must be:

• HIV +
• Recently released from prison and/or jail within the last 12 months, or in the process of being released
• Not currently receiving Ryan White case management

Background:
The model for the Corrections Case Management Initiative was first developed in 1999 through a HRSA/CDC funded corrections and community initiative. Through intensive case management AFC linked this hard-to-reach and transient population with ongoing care and prevention services. The model includes contact with the client while the client is still incarcerated, and upon release, contacts include home visits, office visits, telephone calls, and escorts to service appointments.

The program reconvened in December 2006 with funding provided by the Illinois Department of Public Health (IDPH) to provide intensive case management and supportive services, specifically housing, to individuals living with HIV/AIDS that have been recently released from incarceration.

Partner agencies:
The agencies providing case management services for the initiative are Access Community Health Network, Austin Health Center, Christian Community Health Center, CORE Center, Southside Health Association/Luck Care Center, and South Side Help Center.

More information:
For more information on the Corrections Case Management Initiative, please contact Donnise Gaffeney at (312) 922-2322.

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About the Perinatal Case Management Initiative:
In 2002, the AIDS Foundation of Chicago (AFC) welcomed the University of Chicago's Children's Hospital and Mount Sinai Hospital as partners in a yearlong program to reduce perinatal HIV transmission.

The goal of the prevention project, which is jointly supported by AFC and the Pediatric AIDS Chicago Prevention Initiative (PACPI), is to improve the health of pregnant HIV-positive women and to reduce the possibility that an infected mother will transmit the virus to her baby during pregnancy, labor, or delivery.

Perinatal HIV transmission accounts for 90% of pediatric AIDS cases in the U.S. In 1994, the Pediatric AIDS Clinical Trials Group discovered that when the HIV medication zidovudine (AZT) is dispensed to HIV-positive women during their pregnancy and labor, and to their newborns, the risk of HIV transmission could be reduced by two-thirds. Since this critical medical discovery, pediatric AIDS cases due to perinatal transmission have declined 75% between 1992 and 1998. But, the effectiveness of AZT is dependent upon the individual's adherence to its complex regimen and the maintenance of regular medical visits. To this end, AFC and PACPI created two new intensive case management positions to ensure that pregnant HIV-positive women get the medical support and counseling they need to sustain their HIV-medication regimens.

Clients are identified and referred to an intensive case manager, known as a maternal child health specialist, by obstetricians and other health care and social service providers, as well as by AFC-funded case managers. The specialist provides clients with intensive case management services throughout the term of their pregnancies and six-months after delivery. These services consist of linkages to primary, prenatal, and well-child care, as well as substance abuse treatment and other psychosocial services as needed. At the end of the six-month, post-partum period, clients are transferred from intensive to non-intensive HIV case management, for further health services needs. AFC anticipates that the case manager to client ratio for the program will be between 1:8 and 1:20 at any given time during the pregnancy and post-partum period.

AFC currently administers two other intensive case management programs for high-risk populations with HIV— the Safe Start program and the Corrections Initiative. Safe Start pairs multi-diagnosed, HIV-positive, homeless clients with intensive case managers to ensure that they get the housing and support services they need, while the Corrections Initiative targets HIV-positive individuals returning from correctional settings and gives them access to the life-stabilizing services they need to make a successful transition back into the community. Each program is based on the intensive case management model that includes frequent client visits and small caseloads.

More Information
For more information on perinatal case management, please call the 24-hour Illinois Perinatal HIV Hotline at 1-800-439-4079.

		Access HIV health, housing, and legal services.

		Learn about U.S. guidelines for HIV treatments on the AIDSInfo website.

Corrections Partner Agencies:
Access Community Health Network
Austin Health Center
Christian Community Health Center
CORE Center
Southside Health Association/Luck Care Center
South Side Help Center

Perinatal Information
Perinatal Fact Sheet (pdf)