It’s been almost a month into my
internship already, and I can’t believe time has passed so quickly. With weekly
seminars and my project’s tasks – which range from data analysis, to database
management, to community/government partnerships – the NYC DOHMH has kept me
busy!
One of my first tasks was to
analyze the technical assistance that DOHMH offers to community organizations which
provide HIV post-exposure prophylaxis and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PEP and PrEP,
respectively) in New York City. A part of this included analyzing survey
responses from more than 50 agencies to assess strengths and weaknesses and what
services are most needed. Hopefully this will help to focus the Bureau’s efforts
in supporting PEP/PrEP services in NYC.
If you’re unfamiliar with PEP
and/or PrEP, in concept they are more tools in our arsenal to disrupt the
spread of HIV. Used in conjunction with other protection like condoms, PEP is
antiretroviral drug treatment that a person begins within 72 hours of a believed
exposure to HIV. PrEP is a drug that a person takes once a day to prevent HIV
infection should that person be exposed. People in HIV prevention are paying
more and more attention to PrEP because it’s relatively new, and it’s been
shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection by up to 92% when its
regimen is adhered to.
In addition to analyzing technical
assistance data, I am coordinating the Brooklyn arm of New York Knows. New York
Knows is the descendant of The Bronx
Knows and of Brooklyn Knows,
which were two borough-specific HIV testing initiatives that mobilized hundreds
of community partners (see my
first post for more).
This month, my team is preparing an
end-of-initiative report about this recently completed first phase of Brooklyn Knows. We want to know exactly
how many people were tested each quarter over its four years, how many people tested
positive, how many positives were first-time diagnoses, and how many of each of
the latter two groups were linked to treatment. Currently, I am pinpointing holes
in the data and implementing a plan to collect that data. The report will be
distributed at our Partner Appreciation Reception in August – a 200+ person
event which I am also in charge of planning! J
Outside of my direct project, my
internship program coordinates seminars to introduce us to various other public
health projects each week. Run as lecture-style workshops, each one has honestly
been as interesting as the last. We’ve heard from NYC’s plan to reduce traffic
fatalities and serious injuries to zero, an
innovative
approach to mental health and emotional crisis treatment, NYC’s Center for Health
Equity, and an obesity prevention approach which utilizes
collaboration with designers, architects, and city planners to optimize the
city’s built environment. Tomorrow we’re learning about DOHMH’s response to the
Ebola outbreak.
On top of that, the Bureau of HIV
Prevention and Control (BHIV) has been great hosts. While there are 120 interns
this summer across all of the Department’s Bureaus, my Bureau has about eight
to 10 interns. Each week, we meet as a small group with different leaders in BHIV
to talk about their roles, career paths, HIV in general, and about public
health in general.
There is more that I’m leaving out,
but I’ll save that for my next post! I’ll let these photos do the rest of the
talking for today… Until next time!
Group photo from the DOHMH float in NYC’s Pride Parade –
June 28, 2015
On the DOHMH float with fellow Pitt graduate student, Chantz
Anderson – June 28, 2015
Pitt was representing at NYC Pride! On the DOHMH float with
Rene Lloyd (class of 2012) – June 28, 2015
At Love + Politics, a National HIV Testing Day reception, with one of
my co-interns, Aiyana Wells – June 30, 2015
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