Danielle Rohr, left, and Januari Fox of Prism Health North Texas
Prism Health North Texas has been chosen as one of 26 recipients of a grant distributed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its Enhancing STI and Sexual Health Clinic Infrastructure program, PHNTX officials announced today (Thursday, Aug. 1). PHNTX will receive $2.5 million over a five-year period, distributed as $500,000 per year, from 2023 to 2028, 20.83 percent of the total $12.5 million allotted for the grant.
The ESSHCI program aims to strengthen clinic infrastructure and expand access to comprehensive sexual health services in communities with high STI burden and unmet need for clinical services. The funds will be used to execute a two-pronged approach: first by fostering community engagement and partnerships and second by strengthening clinic infrastructure and provision of sexual health services with community input.
Following an internal assessment conducted over the last quarter of 2023 aimed at deciphering needs and best practices for beginning the community engagement stage, PHNTX engaged the first portion of the project by developing a series of community assessments targeting various patient and non-patient populations in the organization’s service areas. The organization then established the Sexual Health Advisory Group, composed of 11 community members whose mission is to help increase access to sexual healthcare through meaningful community engagement and representation.
“We are eager to implement the ESSHCI in the North Texas community and are pleased with the group of community members we have assembled for the Sexual Health Advisory Group that will play a key role in evaluating the current status of sexual health access and aiding our strategy development for increasing access,” said Danielle Rohr, director of program evaluation for PHNTX.
“Through our current patient network and community engagement events over the first six months of 2024 including activations at Dallas-area Pride celebrations, we have an excellent candidate pool for this group,” Rohr said.
Over the next two years, SHAG will meet monthly to discuss community experiences, needs and strategy to improve access and utilization of sexual health services, the learnings of which will be used to develop an overall plan improvement for three key health clinic locations: the Oak Lawn Health Center, South Dallas Health Center and Uptown Physicians Group. Eventual implementation of new equipment, expansion of essential services and additions of new staff will support the ESSHCI program in North Texas.
The launch of this five-year project comes at an especially appropriate time as STI infection rates continue to rise across the United States and especially in Texas. The ESSHCI program is one of the tools PHNTX will continue to use to tackle infection rates among its service populations in addition to a free condom delivery service, behavioral health services, and the operation of its five health clinics and three pharmacies.
“As our organization has continued to focus on community outreach and expansion of available services, this grant and learning opportunities it provides will increase access to high quality, accessible health care and better health outcomes for North Texas,” said Januari Fox, director of policy, advocacy and community engagement for PHNTX.