I am working as an HIV medical case manager. Here is what it says on my resume:
Coordinate and facilitate medical and social services for clients who receive medical assistance. Encourage client participation in medical treatment and promote the well-being of the individual. Evaluate medical and social needs to develop and implement service care plan. Link client to support services and act as resource to resolve access problems. Monitor quality and effectiveness of services. Maintain and update client files and database. Perform crisis intervention as needed.
While doing all that, I naturally approached most of my responsibilities through the lens of my main profession and passion, conflict. Negotiating with institutions and problem-solving to gain better services for clients became my daily routine. Coaching client to learn and use skills to resolve their issues was a priority. Beyond interpersonal interactions and relationships, I began looking at how HIV outreach/education and medical care were not working in terms of reducing the incidence rate of new infections. How and why this is happening is beyond my knowledge and expertise. What I do know is that the programs purporting to stop the spread of HIV were lacking in an understanding of the environment in which they are situated. I asked around for certain information about HIV/AIDS in Delaware County and Upper Darby and was told that I either could not have access to the data or I discovered that it simply did not exist. (More on this later, perhaps.)
This is one of the reasons I am designing a conflict analysis framework (CAF) that I can use in my own back yard. I want to understand what is happening in Upper Darby, Pennsylvania in a way that makes sense to me. Politically. Economically. Geographically.
What tools or other instruments have you designed to find data that otherwise wasn’t available to you?
Tags: conflict, HIV prevention, HIV/AIDS