Just Released: White House Releases National HIV/AIDS Strategy Federal Implementation Plan (2022-2025)

Cross-posted from HIV.gov 

White House Publishes Federal Implementation Plan for National HIV/AIDS Strategy

By Harold J. Phillips, MRP, Director, Office of National AIDS Policy, The White House

Today we reached an important milestone in our work to implement the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS) with the release of the NHAS Federal Implementation Plan (PDF 824 KB). The document reflects the collaborative work of representatives from 10 federal departments and details more than 390 action items they will implement individually and collaboratively. This plan documents federal agencies’ commitments to programs, policies, research, and other activities needed to meet the Strategy’s goals. These critical activities, which encompass work to be done in fiscal years 2022–2025, will move our indicators of progress in the right directions.

I am pleased that this Federal Implementation Plan reflects the participation of more federal departments and agencies in our HIV response than ever before. We are grateful to the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior for joining these efforts for the first time and lending their expertise to addressing important issues. Specifically, their expertise is crucial in understanding and addressing social determinants of health that influence HIV risk and outcomes, as well as access to education and HIV services for vulnerable populations.

Five New Indicators on Quality of Life among People with HIV

The Federal Implementation Plan also introduces five new NHAS indicators of progress focused on quality of life among people with HIV. When the NHAS was released in December 2021, my office, the White House Office on National AIDS Policy (ONAP), committed to developing such an indicator. Earlier this year, I tasked a working group of representatives from six federal agencies involved in developing and implementing the NHAS with carefully listening to community input and evaluating options for possible measures, data sources, and targets that could be adopted and implemented starting this year. As a result of their work and community input, ONAP ultimately adopted five indicators that reflect the multi-dimensional nature of quality of life among people with HIV. They address self-rated health status, mental health, food insecurity, employment status, and unstable housing or homelessness. These new measures will expand our focus beyond just clinical measures for people with HIV. The indicators address self-rated health, unmet need for mental health services, hunger/food insecurity, unemployment, and unstable housing or homelessness. These new measures will expand our focus beyond just clinical measures for people with HIV. Now, some of our work across federal and nonfederal collaborators needs to involve determining how various programs, policies, research, and other activities can be used to make a meaningful impact on each of these indicators. To support the NHAS Federal Implementation Plan, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has published two HIV surveillance supplemental reports highlighting quality of life-related data. The Medical Monitoring Project (MMP) Data Tables Report includes a table for each quality of life indicator. Beginning in 2023, these indicators will be published annually in the MMP Surveillance Report. The Monitoring Report was previously published in May 2022 and has been updated to include the five quality of life indicators (Table 10).

Call to Action for Nonfederal Stakeholders

We know that federal activity alone can’t end the HIV epidemic. That is why the Strategy is a national one, not just a federal one. The NHAS is a call to action for stakeholders from all sectors of society to engage in a more coordinated, re-energized national response to HIV. This call to action includes the collaborative and aligned efforts of people with or at risk for HIV; public health professionals; health care providers; people working in state, tribal, and local government; staff of faith- and community-based organizations; educators; researchers; and people leading and working in private industry. The NHAS Federal Implementation Plan can provide inspiration to all these nonfederal partners, supporting their own efforts to identify and implement complementary actions that accelerate our efforts to end the HIV epidemic in the United States.

You can find the NHAS Federal Implementation Plan and more information about the NHAS at HIV.gov.