What is the Early Intervention Services program?

The Monroe County Health Department (MCHD) receives federal Ryan White funding to provide HIV Early Intervention Services (EIS). The EIS program provides on-going comprehensive health care for persons infected with HIV throughout Monroe County. Our mission is to provide the highest quality of care with compassion and with respect for individual dignity.

In addition to providing medical care MCHD Early Intervention Services also assures that HIV infected persons in Monroe County who may or may not know their HIV status receive testing, counseling, and linkage to treatment services. Your help is invaluable in preventing the further transmission of this disease. HIV prevention, both primary and secondary, depends upon the collaboration of our clients with community agencies who are performing outreach activities. EIS is concerned about the HIV infected who are not in care as well as about those who are. The MCHD EIS program works with the Julius Adams AIDS Task Force (JAATF) to assure successful outreach activities, especially targeting racial/ethnic minorities. The prevention department of AIDS Help also has a staff of HIV outreach workers and educators.

Patients receiving Early Intervention Services at the MCHD clinic are referred to AIDS Help Incorporated (AHI) for case management. The purpose of Case Management is to provide patients with access to medical, social, and legal services, as well as the public benefits systems. The Ryan White CARE Act has made Case Management services available throughout the State of Florida. Case Management is the coordination and management of medical and social services and is a process in which a person with multiple service needs has those needs addressed through a coordinated process. As a client of AHI you will have access to benefits and services provided through the Florida Keys HIV Community Planning Partnership, the planning body that prioritizes spending for federal funding received from Ryan White Title II and state grants.

MCHD EIS also administers the State of Florida AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP). Those of you who are not eligible for Medicaid and do not have private insurance may enroll in ADAP. Your medications will be ordered monthly and you will pick them up regularly at the clinic.