Monday, April 19, 2010

Announcement: We're Changing Our Name


As of this week, we will now be the Dorothy Mann Center for Pediatric and Adolescent HIV. Formal announcements will be made at the Family Planning Council's Annual Luncheon to be held on Wednesday, April 21st and at the AIDS Activities Coordinating Office (AACO)'s Executive Director's Meeting tomorrow. There's a lovely article in the Philadelphia Inquirer about Dorothy to learn more about her. What's not mentioned in this article is how instrumental Dorothy was in ensuring the inclusion of dedicated funding for women and children in the Ryan White CARE Act (Part D). We are thrilled that Dorothy is lending us her name for our center.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Collaborator of the Week: The Village


The Village of Arts and Humanities (The Village) is a multifaceted arts organization dedicated to community revitalization through the arts. The need for a new urban landscape in 1986, spawned the Village of North Philadelphia. Started originally as a small neighborhood park project, it has grown to offer a menu of services including: the Village Arts Challenge, Teen Leadership Corps, and an annual theater production. They have a great website, so check it out for more information and a schedule of upcoming events.
We had the good fortune to be able to go there this week to do an educational presentation on HIV. The teens had a great conversation with our staff about whether or not someone with HIV should disclose their status to their partner. Become a fan of theirs on Facebook.

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Please vote for us to continue our GED/Literacy Program

This year we have been able to fund an informal program to provide homework tutoring and prep for taking a GED course for our teens. Our part-time tutor, Ritz Alvarez, is leaving for a Pediatrics Residency, but we would like to continue the program. Voting for this program through Pepsi would provide us with enough funds to hire a part-time teach and instructional materials.
Many of the teens in our program need an educational boost before they are ready to start a GED program, so this this program provides individualized learning plans to help them prepare and to build confidence.

Thursday, March 25, 2010

Annual Pediatric AIDS Benefit Concert by Medical Students Raises $35,000


The 17th Annual Pediataric AIDS Benefit Concert, held by the medical students of Drexel University College of Medicine, raised $35,000 this year. Funds raised by the students is used to partially support the salary of our child life person and as an emergency fund for families. The event, held right after "Snowmageddon", one of this year's massive snow storms was well attended despite the weather. The concert is entirely student run and features musical performances by students and faculty. Everyone reports having a great time and the music, as usual, was wonderful. Dr. Daniel Schidlow, Chair of Pediatrics at St. Chris, sang select opera performances at the beginning of the show and Dr. Dennis Novack, one of the founders of the concert series performed with his band at the end. Pictured here, are this year's co-chairs Prianka Chawla and PJ Wagner when they stopped by clinic to drop off some t-shirts for some of the kids from clinic. Program staff have commented about how great it was to work with PJ and Prianka this year and look forward to meeting next year's co-chairs.

Sunday, March 21, 2010

Construction on New Clinic Space Begins



For a planned June opening, Immunology will be re-locating across the parking lot to the Waldo S. Nelson Pavilion on the grounds of St. Christopher's Hospital for Children. While the move is not far, the new space is a giant leap. Staff will gathered from multiple office locations into one area with greatly improved work flow and new furniture. The Immunology re-location is part of large capital improvement project at St. Chris by Tenet Healthcare, starting with the Immunology Program and culminating in expansion of the Emergency Department. Stay tuned for information about our face lift and re-organization of the program-- and especially the grand opening party and picnic.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Collaborator of the Week: Northeast Treatment Center


The Juvenile Justice Program at the Northeast Treatment Center is our featured Collaborator of the Week. We're currently providing HIV education and rapid HIV testing at the program for girls (Henry House) and boys (the Firehouse). Both of these are residential programs for youth in the Philadelphia Family Court system who are awaiting placement at other facilities. While they are they, they receive counseling, medical and dental care, and life skills training. Our experiences with them have been great. Our staff who go there only have great things to say about the place. "The girls at the facility were very engaged during our workshop and they asked a bunch of questions because they were learning new things about their sexual health and they wanted to know how to protect themselves the STDs/HIV" "Our presentation was only supposed to least an hour but it ran almost 30 minutes longer."

Monday, March 15, 2010

Barbara Bungy Leads Successfull National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day Events




Barbara Bungy, Youth Outreach Coordinator at the St. Chris HIV Program and the recipient of funding from the DHHS Office of Women's Health, lead the program to a successful event for National Woman and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The event, held at the Rose of Sharon Apostolic Church had 20 contributors presenting information HIV/AIDS and STD prevention, but also health screenings around nutrition and heart health. The workshops were well attended and focused on preventing HIV/AIDS and in building healthy relationships. We plan to have this become an annual event. Comments from participants included: "Appropriate and helpful workshop, I learned a lot about HIV transmission" "Out community really needs informtion about HIV and domestic violence. Thank You!: "I learned that there are more resources available in the community that doesn't cost a penny!!!"

Friday, March 5, 2010

St. Chris Team Improving Our Time Management Skills




Michael Thomas, of The Tomato Group, Inc. presented a day long Time Management Seminar for all program staff so that we can have tools for effective time management. Michael is a nationally known trainer who specializes in professional development for individuals working in social service fields. He taught us to help separate what's urgent and what's not and what's important and not. Not only was it fun, but he also helped us develop valuable insights into those things about us that lead us to procrastinate.
We found Michael through Dr. Sandra Bloom of Drexel's Center for Nonviolence and Social Justice because she knows him from their work together with Sanctuary.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The St. Chris Teen Peer Academy Featured in "The Source"



Dr. Jill Foster and her co-authors Theresa Parrino, LCSW, Maria Frontera, MSW, and Dr. Maureen Davey write about the St. Chris Teen Peer Academy in The Source, a twice yearly publication by the National Abandoned Infants Assistance Resource Center (AIA) (funded by the US Department of Health and Human Services Children's Bureau). The article discusses the successes and challenges of Teen Peer Academy, the after school peer support and training program for HIV positive youth. The article also features art and poetry from two of the program's teens who are part of the program. A print version of the article will be distributed nationally in the next several weeks. The Source provides information for service providers of children in families affected by issues around HIV/AIDS and substance abuse. The AIA funds the Family Centered Home Visitors Program of the Health Federation of Philadelphia.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Colllaborator of the Week: Youth United for Change


Each week, we will highlight one of the local agencies we have a chance to work with. This week, it is Youth United for Change. YUC is an agency "dedicated to developing young leaders in Philadelphia and empowering them to improve the quality of education and services in their communities to better meet their needs." With chapters throughout Philadelphia, they provide educational seminars and provide skills building for youth to improve their options and success for the future. Visit their website to learn more about them. This week we had the opportunity to provide HIV education and testing at one of their sites and our staff came back raving about how great they were. Marie and Tira's comments included: "Great group of students, their interactions during the presentation was one of the best we have seen."

Monday, March 1, 2010

Dr. Laguerre to Give Grand Rounds on Rapid Testing





On March 12, Dr. Roberta Laguerre will present grand rounds at Crozer Chester Medical Center to the Department of Emergency Medicine on the topic of rapid testing for HIV in the emergency department. In her discussion, she will emphasize the CDC recommendations for HIV testing in healthcare settings and provide proven strategies for implementation in this settings. The experience in the St. Chris clinic is that many of our newly diagnosed patients have had multiple encounters with health care providers prior to being diagnosed with HIV. Many of them had these encounters while being symptomatic with acute HIV infection, increasing their unknowing risk of transmission of HIV to others.

Friday, February 26, 2010

Dr. Conway is the Lead Author on a Poster Presentation in San Francisco




Dan Conway, MD just returned from San Francisco and CROI where he made a poster presentation of a study, Prevalence of Congenital Anomalies in Infants with in Utero Exposure to Antiretrovirals: IMPAACT P1025. The IMPAACT group found that the rate of congenital anomalies, especially cardiovascular ones, was higher in children enrolled in this study. P1025 was a study that enrolled over 1300 pregnant women and followed the outcomes of both them and their infants. Efavirenz (Sustiva TM), a known teratogen, was the only antiretroviral found to be linked in a statistically significant way to anomalies. Dr. Conway reports that the conference was interesting and informative.


Welcome to the Unofficial St. Chris Pediatric and Adolescent HIV/AIDS Program Blog

Stay tuned to this site for information and news items from the St. Christopher's Hospital for Children Pediatric and Adolescent HIV/AIDS Program.