Piedmont Health Services and Sickle Cell Agency

HIV/AIDS

The SCOPE Program

Piedmont Health Services and Sickle Cell Agency provides HIV/AIDS outreach, education and testing through its “Street and Community Outreach offers Prevention Education” (SCOPE) program. The purpose of the SCOPE program is to reduce the transmission of HIV/AIDS in high-risk populations. The SCOPE program achieves this goal by offering a combination of skill-building, counseling and risk-reduction techniques in order to promote safer and healthier behavior in our clients. SCOPE utilizes the following different programs to accomplish its goals:

SISTA Project: Targets African American women in order to increase their knowledge of the dangers of HIV/AIDS and teach effective methods of preventing HIV transmission. The goal of the program is to reduce HIV/AIDS infection by improving communication and negotiation skills between women and their partners, and by increasing overall self esteem.

Safety Counts: Targets active cocaine and injecting drug users. This program teaches risk-reduction behaviors and offers counseling and referrals.

Prevention Case Management: Targets recovering drug users in order to help prevent drug relapse and HIV/AIDS infection/transmission.

Community PROMISE: Recruits individuals in recovery from drug use and other high-risk behaviors to become role models called “Peer Advocates.” Peer Advocates seek to inspire and educate others engaged in high-risk behaviors by sharing their personal stories of recovery.