Philadelphia is adding a new resource to its effort to end the HIV epidemic – a “one-stop shop” resource finder. The new service allows Philadelphians to search for treatment and prevention resources throughout the city.
The tool provides access to critical resources for many types of users, said Anna Thomas-Ferraioli, the Ending the HIV Epidemic Advisor for the Philadelphia Health Department.
“It was really important that we developed a tool that was usable by two really different user types,” she said. “One is for community members, maybe people with HIV or their family members or friends, or people who are just generally interested in knowing what’s out there.”
“And secondly were those who we describe as ‘super users,’ which we really think of as case management providers and navigation providers, who are people who directly work to connect people to resources.”
The searchable directory is available through Philly Keep on Loving – the health department’s sexual health and wellness resource.
Thomas-Ferraioli said the website offers multiple avenues to filtering resources.
“Under the ‘find services’ option, you can use a keyword search, so if you have something in mind, you can just type in that keyword,” she said. “You can also use the drop-down menu to scroll through what items are there, and you can click on what you’re interested in. You can also filter by county.”
Resources include food banks and home-delivered meal options, places that offer emergency financial assistance or harm reduction, and various options to get necessary outpatient care.
Helping all people
This resource is a part of the Ending the HIV Epidemic initiative.
The federal program includes Philadelphia and 47 other counties, and aims to reduce HIV infections in these areas by 90% by 2030.
The city has also focused on increasing the number of Philadelphians who know their HIV status and helping newly diagnosed HIV patients get proper treatment.
The latest available data from 2022-23 shows that new HIV infections have gone down in the city from 440 in 2017 to 310 in 2022. The rate of confirmed HIV diagnoses has also continued to trend downward from 2017 to 2023.
Thomas-Ferraioli explained that this tool aims to bring these numbers down further by providing a “one-stop shop” for critical services.
“What we found was that there wasn’t one good resource in place,” she said. “We had different tools that maybe served different purposes, but we didn’t have it all in one place, in a way that we thought was really accessible to people.”
She said the website will offer resources that are available to most people – without barriers for race, income or immigration status.
“These resources are available at no cost to the participant,” she said. “They are all accessible for people with disabilities, are available in your language or through translation services, and are also available regardless of immigration status in almost all cases.”
The resource finder is available in English and Spanish, and Thomas-Ferraioli said providers are also able to provide a line for other languages to be able to access these services.
A “crucial” resource
Thomas-Ferraioli said the city’s work to end the HIV epidemic is critical, as it can save lives.
“HIV is a manageable, chronic illness, but like many manageable, chronic illnesses, if you don’t manage it, there can be really serious things that happen, up to and including death,” she said.
She said this can help Philadelphians get proper treatment quickly, so that they can manage HIV symptoms and avoid future side effects.
She explained this can benefit both the individual and the broader community.
“We want to make sure that each individual with HIV can lead a happy, healthy, full, long life, but also people who are virally suppressed and who are undetectable cannot transmit HIV to other people through sex,” she said. “So it’s also important to our whole community that people with HIV have access to these resources, because then they can’t transmit HIV, which is really important for both the individual and the larger community.”
The website also directs people to places to get PrEP, or pre-exposure prophylaxis, treatment, which can help prevent HIV before a potential exposure. This includes TelePrEP – which can be a more private and an accessible online option to get treatment.
She explained another resource is PEP, or post-exposure prophylaxis, which can allow people who were recently exposed to HIV to potentially stop the virus from spreading throughout the body.
“If an individual thinks they had an exposure, they can reach out,” she said. “It’s a really short time frame. There’s a PEP hotline that people can call and get connected with post-exposure prophylaxis and get started quickly.”
She said those who are exposed can call the PEP hotline at (833) 933-2815. This resource is also available on the resource finder.
The impacts of the website are already measurable, with over 1,000 page views since the product’s launch in early January. She said as time goes on, the city is hopeful to see direct impacts between resource accessibility and connecting to necessary care.
“[Soon], we will be able to look more broadly at care outcomes, and care-seeking behavior, and see how many people are seeking care,” she said. “If there’s any change in uptake of any of our services, we will be able to see that over time. We get reports on how many people use any of our support services from the service providers.”
The product is expected to touch more people as the department continues with community outreach, said James Garrow, the communications director for the city’s Department of Public Health.
“[Once we’re] really able to get into the community and highlight this resource tool at community events, in small groups to people and have those face-to-face conversations, we’re expecting these numbers of utilization of the website to expand increasingly, especially as we ramp up for Pride this summer,” he said.
