“The Isis Project” Funded by SAMHSA (October 2006)

Community Connections is pleased to announce that we have been awarded SAMHSA funding for The Isis Project, a five-year services project to improve the mental and physical health of African American women in the District of Columbia who are HIV positive.

The Isis Project will both increase the accessibility of needed services and provide an array of culturally competent, gender-specific, HIV-informed mental health services. The project’s target population includes three groups: HIV-positive women who have severe mental disorders; HIV-positive women whose mental health status has not been evaluated or who do not have a DSM-IV diagnosis; and those individuals who are part of these women’s natural networks. The Isis Project’s activities will be organized around three goals. First, Community Outreach and Liaison activities will work to increase identification of mental health concerns among African American women and providers of HIV/AIDS services and of HIV-related concerns among providers and consumers of mental health services. Second, Integrated Mental Health Support Services will emphasize the close coordination of mental health and other medical care and will provide a full range of community supports through a newly developed Wellness Intensive Case Management team. And third, Specialty Mental Health Services will respond to several priority mental health and network needs of project participants.

An experienced group of health services researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine will team with us to conduct process and outcome evaluations of the project. Also, we are excited to partner with a number of local medical and grassroots organizations on this initiative. For more information please contact Rebecca Wolfson Berley, MSW, Isis Project Director at (202) 608-4735 or rwolfson@ccdc1.org.