APA supports the Trump administration’s new initiative to address HIV but is concerned about the lack of new resources for behavioral health services. “That’s a major gap,” says Leo Rennie, APA’s senior director of congressional and federal relations. “Additional resources need to go to dealing with mental health and substance use disorders, which are linked to HIV transmission and adherence.”
While the administration’s proposed cuts to social safety net programs and HHS funding have largely been ignored by Congress, they remain troubling, he says, because people living with HIV are particularly reliant on these programs. That’s why APA is leading advocacy efforts to increase federal funding for SAMHSA’s Minority AIDS Initiative, the main source of funding for integrating HIV screening, care and treatment into publicly funded mental health and substance use services.
“We’re recommending a $44 million increase in SAMHSA funding for the agency’s Minority AIDS Initiative,” Rennie says. “Those resources would go to prevention, treatment and recovery support services, HIV testing and linkages to care in mental health and substance use clinics.”
APA signed a letter sent to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on Oct. 15 written by the Federal AIDS Policy Partnership, a national coalition of 120 organizations, advocating for the highest possible funding levels for domestic HIV programs.
In addition, in August 2019, APA’s Council of Representatives passed a resolutionopens in new window on integrated behavioral and biomedical approaches for optimizing HIV prevention. The resolution urges psychologists to continue to encourage the use of HIV medications alongside behavioral health care. It also recommends:
- More behavioral research on medication adherence and participation among those in treatment.
- Additional research on mental health, substance use and behavior change among those at risk of HIV infection.
- More collaboration among those working to address HIV and other sexually transmitted infections by combining medicine with behavioral health approaches.
- Promotion of public policies at every level, from Congress and the executive branch to state and local governments, that support increased interdisciplinary training, practice and research.
