(L-R) SHLI Director of Population Health Maisha Standifer, PhD, MPH, Project Director Jareese Stroud, MPH, and Project Director Evan Martin, LMSW, spoke at a press conference to announce Georgia Thrives, a new HIV/AIDS initiative.
Satcher Health Leadership Institute Launches HIV/AIDS Campaign
The Georgia Thrives campaign aims to address the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on Black and African American people in Georgia.
By Isaiah Singleton, The Atlanta Voice
Georgia ranks in the top five nationally for people living with HIV, according to the Satcher Health Leadership Institute (SHLI) at Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM).
In response to the immediate need HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention efforts in the Black community, SHLI and MSM announced the launch of a campaign specifically tailored to reach the Black community in Georgia called “Georgia Thrives”.
Georgia Thrives aims to address the disproportionate impact of HIV/AIDS on Black and African American people in this state.
One in 51 people in Atlanta may be infected with HIV/AIDS at any given time, according to the SHLI Health Equity Tracker. In Georgia, the number of Black males living with HIV is 6.1 times that of white males. Meanwhile, the rate of Black females in Georgia living with an HIV diagnosis is 11.7 times that of white females.
Dr. Maisha Standifer, Satcher Health Leadership Institute at Morehouse School of Medicine director of population health, said the initiative is very important and timely.
“This initiative is one we hold near and dear in our hearts, not just in our community, but with Black women as well and in general, to talk about health equity in marginalized populations,” she said. “This particular initiative is funded by Gilead Sciences and is called Ending the Epidemic, examining the health equity implications of health systems policy and data gaps for people living with HIV, particularly focused on the southern US,” she said.
The importance of the initiative, she said, is because the South has the highest rate of new cases for HIV. Standifer also said while she was presenting data to others, many people were shocked HIV/AIDS were still an issue.
Additionally, Standifer said the importance is also increasing access to education and the utilization of culturally competent and tailored messaging.
“No, it’s no longer the issue that it was 40 plus years ago when it was considered a death sentence, but now we know people are thriving and surviving with HIV,” she said. “When we talk about new cases, what does that mean when Black men have the highest rates of cases primarily in Atlanta. Also, knowing Black women are the second growing number of cases, what is really happening? We’re not dying, but there are impacts related to that in your health.”
Standifer said they want people to gain insight on the disruption of health care and focus on rural health.
“We are looking at educating and providing more culturally competent and tailored toolkits and educational resources for clinicians to be able to directly provide the services that are needed, to be able to talk and to be able to guide those who are HIV possible or even HIV diagnosed. We’re working with communities and community-based organizations in rural areas in Georgia and not just the metropolitan Atlanta area,” she said.
All in all, Standifer said they are excited to launch the Georgia Thrives initiative and will also be focusing on HBCUs.
“We are co-sponsoring a system with the HIV summit that will occur next spring. We really want to connect and start talking about it within the Black community. We’re also highlighting the religious component; we know we cannot be absent within the Black community,” she said. “You cannot really talk about this without the religious community being absent. So, we have connected with our religious roundtable members and connected locally with ITC [Interdenominational Theological Center] in the Atlanta University Center, and we are connecting throughout Louisiana with religious leaders that we know are vital, an important part of it.”
Standifer said they will be having discussions with stakeholders in Atlanta, including pastors and preachers, about the umbrella of health equity.
“We’re talking about HIV the same way you’re talking about transportation as being the issue. We’re talking about housing, nutrition, and access. It’s all related as we talk about social determinants of health,” she said. “You’re not just talking about one aspect of why somebody is not able to gain access to a PREP or certain spaces that we know that oftentimes is related to housing, related to transportation, related to education, related to insurance.”
For more information, visit https://georgiathrives.org.