FMHI Receives $2.8 Million to Continue Support of Florida/Caribbean AIDS Education and Training Center

Congratulations to Dr. Michael Knox and the USF Center for HIV Education and Research staff, who recently received notice from the U.S. Public Health Service's Health Resources Service Administration (HRSA) of continuation funding in the amount of $2.8 million to support the Florida/Caribbean AIDS Education and Training Centers (AETC).

This grant provides ongoing HIV/AIDS training and research activities with physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, dentists, pharmacists, and other health care professionals in Florida, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, who receive state-of-the-art information, training, and consultation on the prevention and treatments of HIV and AIDS.

The AETC will also provide education to many health professionals whose specialty is not HIV, but who include among their patients people living with HIV. Many of these providers practice in areas where there are no HIV specialty doctors, and the majority of their patients are from minority and other underserved populations.

"Florida/Caribbean AETC training will reach out to such providers in order to increase their capacity for treating HIV positive patients, which continues to be critical in response to the domestic HIV epidemic," stated Dr. Knox. A network of training partners, including the University of Puerto Rico, the University of Florida, the University of Miami, Florida A&M University, and the University of the Virgin Islands, will provide faculty and clinical training sites throughout Florida and the Caribbean.

"These are premier institutions and we are pleased to have brought them all together in this effort," added Knox. "The new grant monies will be used to leverage these vast resources and accomplish three primary goals: to improve the quality of care provided to HIV-infected persons, to increase the number of health care providers capable of diagnosing and treating HIV, to disseminate up-to-date prevention and treatment information to health care providers."

"We find ourselves dealing with a constantly changing epidemic," said Knox, "and a constantly changing response is needed so that we can help to ensure that patients receiving specialized care from trained practitioners will live longer."

Housed within the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, the Florida/Caribbean AETC central office operates in collaboration with the USF College of Medicine's Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Internal Medicine, the USF Department of Pediatrics, and the USF College of Public Health.

The Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute (FMHI) has emerged as a national leader in behavioral health research. The Institute houses several state and national research and training centers focused on improving practices in treating mental, addictive, and developmental disorders.