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From June 2001 NASW NEWS NASW aims to ensure that mental health services availability is part of the evaluation. The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has asked NASW to serve on the stakeholders panel of the National Minority AIDS Initiative in order to evaluate the effects and implementation of public health actions to curb the incidence of HIV/AIDS in minority communities. The review panel was constituted to provide guidance and recommendations to CDC on the evaluation of the HIV/AIDS prevention initiative's design and conduct. NASW staff member Evelyn Tomaszewski said the association's participation can help the initiative's participants measure and document steps to success. "Social workers provide services and volunteer in community-based organizations and coalitions addressing HIV/AIDS. I looked at [the initiative] with an eye toward ensuring that mental health services availability was part of the evaluation of this project," Tomaszewski said. HIV/AIDS tops the list of conditions that disproportionately threaten the health of minority-group members when compared to whites. The initiative's concern is that increases in HIV incidence among African-Americans and other at-risk groups continue, despite public health successes in reducing comparable incidences in nonminority groups. The persistence of such gaps prompted the Congressional Black Caucus to head a drive for passage of legislation designed to address the disparities in health status of racial and ethnic minorities. The Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act was signed into law last November. NASW was active in a successful push to include the behavioral health community among the legislation's beneficiaries [February NEWS]. Back to NASW NEWS Contents
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