ACRIA

The AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (ACRIA) was founded as the Community Research Initiative on AIDS (CRIA) in December 1991 by a group of physicians, activists, and people living with HIV who were frustrated by the slow pace of government and academic AIDS research. They also run the HIV Health Literacy Program (HHLP). ACRIA can trace their history back to the founding of the Community Research Initiative by Michael Callen and Joseph Sonnabend.

History

Under the pioneering leadership of prominent AIDS physicians and researchers like Drs. Joseph Sonnabend and Mathilde Krim, and following the lead of trailblazers like Michael Callen of the PWA Coalition, this truly dynamic group brought an activist approach to the study of new treatments for HIV and AIDS. Since that time we have contributed to the development of more than a dozen medications that have received FDA approval, helping countless thousands of HIV-positive people live longer, healthier lives. Under the leadership of prominent doctors and researchers, these men and women brought the first-ever activist, community-based approach to the study of new treatments for the disease. Since then, ACRIA’s Robert Mapplethorpe Clinical Trials Program has contributed to the development of a remarkable 20 medicines that have gone on to receive FDA approval.

Today

ACRIA also studies the lives and needs of people with or at risk for HIV through its Behavioral Research Program; offers critical HIV healthcare education to HIV-positive people and their caregivers all around the world through its HIV Health Literacy Program; and provides a variety of consulting services (technical assistance, monitoring and evaluation, curriculum development, and web-based learning among them) to strengthen AIDS and other service organizations across the country, enabling those groups to better serve their own clients. Additionally, through the ACRIA Center on HIV & Aging, the organization is recognized as an international authority on the emerging issue of older adults and HIV.

Research

ACRIA’s Behavioral Research Program began in 2003 to address the fact that little was known, or was being asked, about the burgeoning population of older people with HIV. Today, ACRIA is a recognized global authority and resource on HIV and aging, fielding a dynamic team of scientists who are leading research on a host of HIV-related issues.

First among the program’s many publications and accomplishments is its groundbreaking Research on Older Adults with HIV (ROAH) study, the largest ever conducted on older adults with HIV. With a nearly 1,000-person cohort in New York City, the study examined a comprehensive array of issues, including health status, stigma, substance use, depression, social networks, and spirituality. ROAH is unique in the kinds of questions it asked, for the first time probing in depth the sexual and drug-taking risk behaviors of older people with HIV, as well as gathering data on medical and psychosocial issues.

HIV Health Literacy Program (HHLP)

Promoting HIV health literacy has been central to ACRIA’s program philosophy since the organization’s inception. ACRIA’s library of publications includes a variety of HIV health literacy education resources in both English and Spanish, including Achieve and our topic-specific educational booklets, all available on this site.

Their signature publication, Achieve, reaches tens of thousands of people around the world each year. Every issue of Achieve contains a host of articles on a single theme, written by experts and accessible to providers and laypeople alike, along with “Personal Perspectives” that bring the issues to life. Achieve gives special attention to prevention, treatment and access to care. Additionally, the publication features discussions of the policy implications of relevant medical, health and social issues that directly affect persons with and at-risk of HIV and those who serve them.

External links

• ACRIA Official website