The HIV epidemic continues to take a devastating toll on young people. Every day, 2,500 young people are newly infected with HIV and, thanks to the increased availability of antiretroviral treatment and HIV services, increasing numbers of children who acquired HIV perinatally are now reaching adolescence. Whether behaviorally or perinatally infected, adolescents—not children anymore, but also not yet adults—require innovative public health strategies that respond to their unique developmental and health needs, and that successfully engage them in lifelong HIV care and treatment. Health workers are, however, often ill-equipped to deliver clinical and psychosocial services to adolescents living with HIV infection.
In response, ICAP developed the comprehensive Adolescent HIV Care and Treatment: A Training Curriculum for Health Workers. This innovative training package aims to empower multidisciplinary health workers to have the confidence and skills to provide comprehensive, youth-friendly HIV services that support adolescents’ healthy development, psychosocial well being, retention, adherence, sexual and reproductive health, and eventual transition to adult HIV services.
