J-RISE: Relevant Implementation Strategies to Eliminate the Social and Structural Barriers to HIV Services Among Justice-involved Black Men Who Have Sex With Men and Other Key Populations

The overarching goals of J-RISE is to evaluate the effectiveness and implementation of two packaged status neutral interventions to improve access to HIV and employment-related services and employment among individuals who have been impacted by the criminal legal system. Criminal legal involved individuals are particularly vulnerable to HIV, and oftentimes experience delayed uptake and benefit from available HIV services. Status neutral interventions for criminal legal involved individuals hold significant promise in supporting Ending the HIV Epidemic (EHE) plans including enhancing access to HIV, mental health, and substance use services post-release; expanding the skills of the HIV workforce; and addressing the social and structural barriers to HIV services (e.g., unemployment) experienced by this population. The underlying tenet of status neutral interventions is a holistic or whole person approach to service delivery that meets the needs of clients regardless of their HIV status. There is a dearth of implementation science research in this domain, generally, and specifically for criminal legal involved individuals. The following status neutral evidenced-informed/promising interventions will be implemented to improve HIV, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), and employment-related outcomes: (1) Health Navigation (HN) - leading with status neutral health navigator, a foundational intervention, to enhance access to HIV, mental health, substance use, and other supportive services; followed by (2) Employment navigation (EN) -status neutral employment navigators dedicated to supporting client employment, training, and career development needs; and coupled with (3) Contingency Management Intervention (CMI) - the provision of financial incentives for the uptake and achievement of specific HIV care and prevention milestones. Bringing these interventions together will maximize their independent effectiveness and provide significant promise for addressing the social and structural barriers to HIV services. J-RISE will be guided by robust implementation science and equity frameworks (i.e., CFIR: Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research, RE-AIM: Reach Effectiveness Adoption Implementation Maintenance, and MIPA: Meaningful Involvement of People Living with and Impacted by HIV) and tools (e.g., implementation outcomes crosswalk and implementation research logic model). The implementation evaluation will study seven proposed implementation strategies: (1) Building a cross-site learning collaborative; (2) conducting readiness assessments; (3) providing cross-site training for the status-neutral interventions; (4) facilitating ongoing calls with interventionists; (5) monitoring financial incentives; (6) conducting audit and feedback to support implementation; and (7) engaging clients and consumers in the intervention.

Study Aim:

Aim 1. Evaluate the effectiveness of two packaged status neutral interventions (Health Navigation versus Health Navigation + Employment Navigation + Contingency Management Intervention) on primary outcomes (i.e., linkages to HIV, PrEP, and employment-related services within 90 days) and secondary outcomes (i.e., receipt of HIV/STI testing, receipt of mental health and substance use services, retention in HIV and PrEP care, viral suppression, employment within 180 days and sustained employment) among enrolled participants. The investigators will conduct a pragmatic 2-arm randomized control trial (RCT) with N=350 enrolled participants randomized 1:1.

Aim 2. Explore the deployment of seven prioritized implementation strategies to enhance the adoption, implementation, and sustainment of the packaged status neutral interventions as it relates to nine key implementation outcomes (i.e., reach, acceptability, feasibility, adoption, fidelity, penetration, effectiveness, cost, engagement, and sustainability). The investigators will utilize a mixed method approach to complete this aim.

Inclusion criteria

• be at least 18 years of age;
• currently reside or intend to reside in one of the study communities (i.e., Cook County, Baton Rouge, and the New Orleans area);
• be able to provide informed consent in English and complete the study in English. In addition, potential participants must:
• be currently incarcerated in jail or prison and report an expected release within 90 days, or under community supervision or drug court, or report a recent incarceration within the last three years, or in the last 12 months has had an interaction with law enforcement that did not lead to an arrest or jail or prison time, AND has not already been linked and/or retained in HIV or PrEP care in the community;
• report needing employment-related services; and
• have a confirmed HIV positive or negative status (within 90 days of enrollment) and if HIV negative meets one of CDC's PrEP indications (i.e., sexually active, needle sharing, previous STI history in the last 24 months) or plans to have sex in the next 12 months or wants more information about PrEP.

Exclusion criteria

• unwilling/unable to provide informed consent,
• does not live or intend to live in one of the study locations,
• unable to confirm HIV status,
• unable to conduct the study in English, and
• currently enrolled in another intervention to support HIV care, PrEP care, and economic stability.