[PA-23] The Breaking Silence Project: Raising AIDS Awareness and Increasing Health Access in Asian and Pacific Islander Communities
Jen Haejin Kim, MPH, Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS, New York, NY
Authors: Kim, J.H., Bernas, B., Yoshikawa, H., Fukuda, Y., and Rodriguez, T.R.
Issue: New York City's Asian & Pacific Islander (AΠ) population has grown 73% between 1990 and 2000 - the highest increase among all racial groups. Recent immigrants, migrants and refugees with relatively greater difficulty accessing mainstream services because of language and cultural barriers, constitute 80% of New York City's AΠ population. Additionally, 46% of AΠ households are "linguistically isolated", speaking little or no English. Despite this growth, A&PIs; lack culturally and linguistically appropriate HIV/AIDS services including basic HIV information, referrals, testing information and counseling.
Method: The Breaking Silence Project at the Asian & Pacific Islander Coalition on HIV/AIDS (APICHA) aims to increase awareness of, and access to, HIV/AIDS information and services among immigrant and non-English speaking A&PIs; in New York City through a multilingual media campaign and InfoLine intervention. This presentation will cover the development of the media campaign, implementation of program components and descriptive data for Infoline calls.
Results: A total of 427 calls were received between May 2001 and March 2002. AΠ ethnic groups represented were Chinese (19%), Japanese (16%), Indonesian (9%), Filipino (7%) and Korean (3%). Almost half of all Infoline calls were conducted in various AΠ languages. HIV testing referrals were the most common reason for calling the Infoline. A total of 178 A&PIs; were tested at APICHA, with 5 positive results. This 3% positivity rate is three times higher than community health centers and anonymous testing sites.
Conclusion: The Breaking Silence Project appeared to be successful in increasing HIV awareness and access to HIV services. The comparatively higher HIV positivity rate suggests that APICHA's culturally relevant and linguistically appropriate intervention facilitates access to HIV testing among traditionally marginalized and/or hard-to-reach AΠ populations.
