National AIDS Policy Director Keynotes AHSR Conference

On October 15, 2014, Douglas Brooks (’99), director of the Office of National AIDS Policy (ONAP), returned to Boston to keynote the Addiction Health Services Research (AHSR) Conference, hosted by the Center for Addiction Research (CARS). The annual conference focuses on integrating addiction, mental health, and medical care services. President Barack Obama appointed Brooks to ONAP in March, 2014, after he spent 16 years at the Justice Resource Institute and was an active member of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS.

In his presentation, Brooks discussed the vexing statistics about AIDS in the United States.  He also noted that women living with HIV in the United States suffer from PTSD, roughly 55 percent have encountered intimate partner violence, and their risk of dying from the disease is doubled. Further, the number of black women who die from HIV is greater than any other population group.

Brooks told AHSR’s 300-plus attendees that the president is “100 percent committed to HIV.” Since he has taken office, a three-pronged National HIV/AIDS Strategy has been implemented to decrease the number of new infections, reduce HIV-related health disparities, and increase access to health care for those with HIV.

This year, for the first time, the AHSR conference was organized by a social worker. With organizational help from the Boston University School of Medicine and the Boston University School of Public Health, the conference also addressed the mission of BUSSW’s newly endowed Center for Innovation in Social Work and Health. Click here to read Leslie Friday’s full article, published in BU Today.