Project Consumer LINC  

Project Consumer LINC (Linking Individuals into Needed Care) is developing methods to involve Ryan White consumers in linking other PLWH into primary medical care and other needed services.   Project LINC focuses on the following four strategies:

·           Understanding and Refining the System of Care: PLWH who are engaged in Ryan White planning and service delivery provide input on improving systems of care.  Changes are designed to make it easier for PLWH to access services.

·           PLWH Caucus/Committee: PLWH who are involved in identifying unmet need for HIV/AIDS services (i.e., PLWH who are not in care) work with other PLWH to raise their awareness of the HIV care system and provide them with information on how to access and remain in care. In some cases, consumers serve as mentors or informal “patient navigators” to help individuals enter care.

·           Linking PLWH to Care: PLWH serve as part-time or full-time community health workers, linking other PLWH into HIV-related primary medical care and other needed services.

·           Integrated Clinical Care Teams: PLWH serve as members of an integrated clinical care team and may maintain an ongoing relationship (six months or more) with client PLWH, helping first to connect them to care and then to keep them in care and adherent to prescribed treatments.

Project LINC is funded through a cooperative agreement with the HRSA HIV/AIDS Bureau, under which Mosaica provides intensive training and technical assistance (T&TA) to selected Ryan White Part A and Part B grantees, planning bodies, consumers, and providers.  As a result of the T&TA, programs can choose and implement appropriate direct consumer-based strategies (e.g., outreach) as well as indirect models (e.g., consumer-led review of the system of care to remove access barriers).

 See more TA on engaging PLWH in care at the TARGET Center.