HIV Prevention Education
The HIV/AIDS health professionals at Lurie Children's are committed to reducing the transmission of HIV from mother to child and among at-risk adolescents in the Chicago area.
To accomplish this, we:
- Conduct HIV prevention workshops throughout the Chicago area
- Present HIV prevention materials to at-risk youth at middle and high schools
- Teach governmental agencies and medical providers about HIV
- Share HIV prevention information with the most at-risk youth in places where they live, work and hang out
- Assist parents with disclosure issues to schools
- Assist adolescents with disclosure to their partners
- Work with community and youth groups to identify at-risk youth and offer free HIV/STD counseling and testing, and provide educational materials
- Conduct special programs using HIV-affected peer educators (both adults and teenagers) as speakers
For more than a decade, our program has collaborated with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) as a resource for professionals needing assistance with school disclosure for HIV-infected children and adolescents citywide and in the suburbs. Together with CPS, we have organized conferences for middle and high school administrators, nurses, teachers and staff on HIV sensitivity and management of the condition in the school setting. Educational in-services for school staff help to ensure that the school experiences for HIV-infected children and adolescents are more favorable, with fewer breaches of confidentiality.
For more information, or to request a presentation from our outreach team, please e-mail Ann Sanders at msanders@luriechildrens.org.