List of All AHP Programs

The AHP web site is organized to reflect the needs of our constituents: community members, clients, providers, researchers, and donors and supporters, as well as staff. For this reason, sections are organized by type of service for particular groups of people and not by particular program name. This page reflects the administrative organization of the AHP programs:

HIV Care Services

Community Psychiatry and Substance Abuse Services
Mental Health Crisis Unit. Mental Health Crisis Unit. Provides on-site and mobile services to HIV-positive San Franciscans in need of mental health crisis intervention, mental health assessment, clinical consultation, psychiatric medication evaluation and monitoring, and crisis resolution/counseling.

Psychiatric Consult Service. Provides psychiatric evaluation and treatment and medication monitoring to HIV-positive San Franciscans who are medically indigent or under-insured clients. Also provides consultation to other medical and mental health providers working with these clients.

AIDS and Substance Abuse Program (ASAP) Case Management. Provides psychosocial assessment and referral, individual drug abuse counseling, assertive case management and support groups for people with substance abuse problems and HIV.

Psychological Support Services
Offers more than 25 weekly support groups, individual psychotherapy, and day-long workshops on subjects such as sex, dating, intimacy, and issues facing men over 40. Ensures that seropositive and seronegative people have a place to go to discover how they can cope with the undeniable reality of HIV in their midst, including the need to prevent infections.

Prevention Services

HIV Counseling and Testing Services (HCAT)
Provides anonymous and confidential HIV antibody testing services in the city of San Francisco, including mobile testing at community events using both standard and rapid testing. Provides short-term follow-up services to clients given an HIV-positive test result to assure they successfully access appropriate medical and psychosocial care. Further, HCAT offers anonymous screening and treatment services for rectal chlamydia as well as pharyngeal and rectal gonorrhea, detecting a significant number of asymptomatic cases of disease that otherwise would not have been found. Provides sexually transmitted disease treatment for clients, and when clients wish, “partner treatment,” which clients take to their partners. This anonymous STD screening and treatment service was the first of its kind in California and helps to reduce the overall burden of STDs in our community while significantly reducing the risk of HIV transmission among these clients.

REACH (Risk Evaluation and Counseling for Health) Program
Provides individual and group risk reduction counseling as well as information and referral for individuals seeking HIV prevention services. Providers counseling for individuals who receive HIV-negative antibody test results and who engage in high-risk behaviors, runs psychosocial events and workshops and risk reduction counseling groups, and offers crisis intervention services as needed. Also provides counseling to mixed-HIV status couples: those in which one partner has HIV and the other does not.

HIV-Negatives Substance Abuse Services
Provides support and HIV risk reduction education to substance users at high risk of acquiring HIV. Goals include encouraging drug treatment and adoption and maintenance of HIV risk reduction behaviors.

Publication and Training Unit

Publications Program
Publishes books and newsletters regarding HIV-related psychosocial, mental health, and counseling issues. Includes more than a dozen books, many of which are classics, and two ongoing newsletters. Also produces publications for other AHP programs, including both printed and online client materials, community publications, development brochures, programs, and collaterals. Takes advantage of AHP’s connection to UCSF and to the two decades of frontline experience of AHP’s staff.

Training Program
Provides more than 100 live and online trainings and workshops a year. Pioneered the development of the first HIV antibody counseling and testing certification trainings, the first Prevention with People with HIV trainings, and a selection of online trainings. Current trainings include: five- two- and one-day counseling and testing trainings throughout California; two- and one-day prevention with people with HIV trainings throughout California; one-day trainings for substance treatment providers in San Francisco; and, starting in July 2007, a three-day training for community health workers performing outreach throughout California.

Research Program
Conducts research that is practical and service-oriented to devise better ways to conduct HIV prevention, service, and care. Designs and implements the agency's research projects as well as monitors and analyzes program evaluation and other data generated from AHP programs. Shares results with the global research community. Most recently, has developed a new cognitive-behavioral counseling approach to reduce sexual risk behavior among gay and bisexual men at highest risk for HIV and is currently studying the psychological impact of receiving a diagnosis of HIV infection.