Youth Services Navigation Intervention for HIV+ Youth Being Released From or At-risk for Incarceration

Summary

HIV prevalence among incarcerated youth living with HIV (YWH) is three times that of the general population and one in seven of all persons with HIV experience incarceration each year. Furthermore, less than half of all youth in the United States with HIV achieve HIV viral load suppression, due to poor retention and adherence to anti-retroviral therapy (ART). Existing linkage and retention services are insufficient to meet the acute needs of youth with HIV who are at risk for incarceration, recently experienced incarceration or arrest, or those nearing reentry from a correctional facility. This holds particularly true in the high-need period following release from incarceration. The LINK2 study will develop and implement a youth service navigation (YSN) intervention to improve linkage and retention among YWH at risk for incarceration and with current incarceration and arrest histories and analyze results to address existing gaps in the literature.

The investigators will enroll 142 YWH, aged 16-25 (+364 days), incarcerated in Los Angeles and Chicago jails and through community providers serving those at risk for incarceration and YWH with recent incarceration and arrest histories. The investigators will randomize participants to the YSN intervention (n=71) vs. a usual-care control group (n=71). The youth services navigators (YSNs) will assist with addressing immediate unmet needs such as housing, transportation, and food prior to clinical care and ongoing; will guide intervention participants to a range of community services to support progress along the continuum of HIV care; and will provide direct ART adherence support.

The proposed study has two Primary Specific Aims:

1. Adapt an existing peer navigation intervention for adults to create a Youth Service Navigation (YSN) intervention sensitive to sexual and gender minority (SGM) culture that guides youth to needed services along the continuum of HIV care. This intervention combines medical, substance use and mental health care with comprehensive reentry support for YWH, aged 16-25 (+364 days) upon release from large county jails and juvenile detention systems or with arrests in the prior 12 months and those at risk for incarceration based on various social determinants.
2. Using a two-group RCT design, the investigators will test the effectiveness of the new YSN, youth SGM-sensitive intervention among YLWH aged 16-25 (+364 days), compared to controls offered standard of care. The investigators will evaluate the YSN Intervention's effect on post-incarceration linkage, retention, adherence, and viral suppression, as well as on substance use disorders, mental health, services utilization, and met needs. Secondary Aims: The investigators will assess YSN's effects on recidivism, costs and potential cost-offset/effectiveness.

Conditions

• HIV/AIDS

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

LINK2 Youth Services Navigation Intervention

There will be 6 in-person sessions delivered by a youth services navigator, plus weekly check-in calls after session 2 for a total of six months. As part of the learning sessions, the participant will learn important information about HIV and how to get the most out of his/her HIV care.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Children's Hospital Los Angeles

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Chicago

  collaborator OTHER

• Cook County Health & Hospitals System

  collaborator OTHER

• University of California, Los Angeles

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

16 Years

Max Age

25 Years

Sex

MALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2019-08-01

Primary Completion

2024-02-23

Completion

2024-03-31

Countries

• United States

Study Locations