Latino AIDS Commission Launches Pioneering Education Program

NEW YORK - The non-profit Latino Commission on AIDS today launched a pioneering program focused on education and building skills in the Latino community. The program, Tratamiento Ahora/Treatment Now, has a broad range of goals on a local, regional and national level.

The program hopes to provide Spanish language treatment and adherence education skills; develop knowledge of critical new HIV/AIDS treatment information in Spanish; create advocacy treatment initiatives; and to share strategies among treatment educators.

For the first time, disease integration and navigation to access health care will be introduced.

The five key areas of Tratamiento Ahora/Treatment Now program are:

The Latino Treatment Skills Building Training – The Treatment Training will be delivered in cities across the United States & Territories.

The focus will be to enhance treatment educator’s capacity to effectively communicate treatment information to Spanish-speaking service providers, persons living with HIV/AIDS & their care givers.

The National Latino Treatment Educator’s Network – The Network will coordinate Spanish speaking treatment educators from across the nation so they can share information, & successful treatment education models among other health topics.

Treatment Updates & Information Dissemination – Information is power, and timely treatment information is critical to making smart decisions on health & treatment options.

Latino Treatment Educator’s Summit – The Summit will bring together treatment educators from around the country and will serve as an opportunity for educators to stay informed about each other’s work, as well as to continue sharing the latest information in between Treatment Summits.

Establishing the National Latino Treatment Advocacy Network – The advocacy network will focus on mobilizing our communities at all levels to ensure access to treatment and health care for our most impacted communities.

“Today we reaffirm our commitment to escalating our treatment education initiatives and community mobilization in order to empower patients and to achieve healthy communities by ensuring access to quality health care for our communities” stated Guillermo Chacón, President of the Latino Commission on AIDS.