Health Advocacy/Policy
Events
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Bridging the Gap: Sexual Health Education as Prevention for Older Adults
This study highlights the importance of culturally responsive, age-appropriate interventions and underscores the need for comprehensive structural strategies to reduce disparities and promote equitable sexual health outcomes for aging populations.
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I’m Not a Monster: Examining Media Bias and Stigma in Florida News Coverage of HIV-related Arrests
This study examines media bias and stigma in Florida news coverage of HIV-related arrests from 2010 to 2020. A systematic content analysis of 129 news articles revealed disproportionate racial and gender portrayals, with Black men overrepresented as perpetrators despite data showing White women constitute the majority of those arrested. Findings indicate widespread use of stigmatizing language and sensationalized reporting, which amplify public misconceptions about HIV transmission and criminalization.
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An Indictment of US Public Health Policy on Pain and Addiction Management
This presentation addresses the intersection of issues in health equity and justice, versus health advocacy and policy, to identify and contradict the significant misdirection and fatal errors of science in recent opioid prescribing guidelines of the US CDC and Veterans Administration with a critical review of published clinical and demographic data on safety and effectiveness of prescription opioid analgesic pain relievers.
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Intercourse: Sex Ed for Congress
This presentation provides an update on federal reproductive healthcare and access litigation and policy, and highlights strategies for systems change, including policy reforms, advocacy, research, collaboration, and capacity-building to address the implications of unequal access to sex education.
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Empowering Health Professionals to Advocate for Gender-Affirming Care: A Multi-Level Approach
This session will train health professionals to become effective advocates for gender-affirming care at the institutional, state, and federal levels. Amid growing legislative, administrative, and regulatory challenges to transgender health care, health professionals have a unique role and responsibility to advocate for inclusive, evidence-based policies. This session will provide participants with actionable tools to address barriers to care, counter misinformation, and build coalitions to support gender-affirming care access.
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Breaking Barriers in HIV Prevention: Advancing PrEP Research While Rebuilding Trust in Black Communities
This presentation explores the evolution of HIV prevention through the perspective of a Black woman, Community Health Advocate, and clinical research participant deeply engaged in advancing PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) innovation. While biomedical advancements from daily oral PrEP to long acting injectables have expanded prevention options, Black communities remain underrepresented in research and disproportionately impacted by persistent barriers to access. Through a lived-experience narrative, this session examines how medical mistrust, historical trauma, and unequal power dynamics shape community attitudes toward clinical research and preventive care.
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Enhancing Service Delivery by Improving Referral Completion Rates for SDOH Needs
Closing the loop on SDOH ensures that referrals to supportive services such as housing, food and mental health are not only initiated but also completed, tracked , and resolved, This approach strengthens care coordination, reduces barriers to retention, and promotes health equity by addressing non-medical factors that impact overall well being.
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From Position Paper to Advocacy: The Kentucky Nurses Association LGBTQ+ SNIPg (Special Nursing Interest Practice Group): Leadership Through Advocacy
As a nation, we had made great strides in protecting the basic rights of LGBTQ+ persons including their access to appropriate, quality care. For Kentucky LGBTQ+ persons, the passage of Kentucky SB 150 in 2023, progressively began the stripping away of these rights thus putting their well-being and even their lives at risk.
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Justice Is the Intervention: Redesigning Harm Reduction within Black Communities
The decline in drug-related fatalities in New Jersey over the past three years reflects progress in harm reduction, yet racial disparities remain stark. Black and Hispanic communities continue to face disproportionate rates of drug-related deaths—51.4 and 38.9 per 100,000, respectively—compared to white residents. The Black Lives Matter Paterson Harm Reduction Center and Mobile Unit provides resources, care, and support to neglected populations through culturally responsive, Black-centered mobile outreach.
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Reentry as Harm Reduction: Centering Public Health in the Transition from Incarceration
This presentation will explore the intersection of reentry, HIV prevention, harm reduction, and LGBTQ health through the lens of a community-based model developed by Voices for a Second Chance (VSC), a nonprofit based in Washington, DC. VSC’s holistic approach combines trauma-informed case management, peer-led support, and cross-sector collaboration to support justice-involved individuals as they transition back into the community. By meeting basic needs and providing comprehensive health navigation, the model reduces both health risks and the likelihood of recidivism.
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Supporting Syndemic Approaches to Care in a Hostile Political Environment
This session focuses on the way forward with syndemic approaches to eliminate HIV, viral hepatitis, and related epidemics in a political environment characterized by significantly diminished federal investment in infectious disease prevention and treatment, and in overdose crisis response.
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Threats to Reduce STI and HIV Prevention Funding: An Analysis of the Immediate Effects on Partner Services at the Houston Health Department
Scaling back HIV and STI federal funds undermines decades of progress made in the public health realm. Domestic HIV and STI Prevention programs aim to provide essential services such as testing, treatment and education, to help decrease transmission of infectious diseases and improve health outcomes in the local communities. The Houston Health Department (HHD) relies mostly on federal grants to support staffing, infrastructure and preventative services. The Partner Services program is especially crucial for contact tracing to prevent further spread of disease by tracking partners of individuals potentially infected with syphilis and HIV. HHD assessed the Partner Services program’s performance levels to determine if uncertainty in receiving federal funds, which potentially contributed to a significant reduction in workforce, had negatively impacted Public Health Follow Up (PHFU) activities.