Project Title: Walden House Adolescent/Young Planetree Project (YAPT).

Grantee's Name: Walden House, Inc.

Location: San Francisco, CA

Phone 415.554.1100; Fax 415.554.1122

Project Director: Brian Greenberg, Ph.D.

Category: (C); Special Projects of National Significance (SPNS), Demonstration Grant.

Continue to expand the scope and intensity of treatment for HIV-positive adolescents or for youth who are at high risk for HIV infection by integrating mental health services and substance abuse treatment into substance abuse rehabilitation services.

Adolescents Targeted: Triple-diagnosed youth, i.e., living with or at risk for HIV/AIDS, who are substance abusers, and have disabling psychiatric conditions.

Program Abstract: San Francisco, at 287.5 per 100,000, has the highest HIV/AIDS rate of any metropolitan area in the nation. Adolescents and young adults who are substance abusers and mentally ill are perhaps the highest risk group for both contracting and spreading the disease.

There is a shortage of effective treatment services, and a corresponding need for a comprehensive referral system to networked service for adolescents and young people under age 24 who are in need of HIV/AIDS services. YAPT addresses these issues and offers options to young people under age 24 who are in need of HIV/AIDS services. YAPT will offer professionals working with young clients needed information on practical treatment for this population.

Walden House proposes to continue to provide document, and evaluate an innovative, cost-efficient, and effective multi-disciplinary approach to the treatment of adolescents and young adults who have HIV/AIDS, and who also are substance abusers and have disabling psychiatric conditions. Years 4 and 5 of the SPNS Young Adolescence Planetree Treatment (YAPT) project will continue to make substance abuse treatment programming more accessible and effective for HIV/AIDS young people. An outreach campaign, through street work and posters, will focus on recruiting the most disenfranchised HIV/AIDS population into treatment. Also in this contract year, the program focus will be on broad dissemination of information, through a wide range of media, concerning agency experience with the YAPT program, and recommendations concerning its replicability on a wider scale.