Public Health Advisor

About the position The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH)’s Bureau of Hepatitis, HIV, and Sexually Transmitted Infections (BHHS) oversees the City’s response to viral hepatitis, HIV, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Its mission is to improve the lives of New Yorkers by ending transmission, illness, stigma, and inequities related to viral hepatitis, HIV, and STIs. BHHS’s work includes testing initiatives; prevention, care, and treatment programming; epidemiology and surveillance; training and technical assistance; community engagement; social marketing; policy advocacy; and racial equity and social justice initiatives. The ACE (Assess. Connect. Engage.) Team within BHHS is responsible for providing partner services to approximately 2000 New Yorkers newly diagnosed with HIV each year, including the identification, tracing, notification and HIV-testing of their sex and needle-sharing partners. ACE staff ensures that all newly HIV-diagnosed persons are offered linkage to HIV clinical care. In addition, each year, ACE staff reaches out to approximately 3,000 people living with HIV (PWH) in NYC and appear to be out of care, this approach is known as Data to Care (D2C). ACE staff trace the out of care patients, and when found, connect them with HIV clinical care providers. Since March 2020, COVID-19 prevalence and restrictive measures have had an impact on health seeking, including HIV testing and care behaviors in NYC. For all patients and partners, ACE staff assess their needs for additional medical and social services (e.g., Hepatitis C, sexually transmitted infections, COVID-19, housing, and nutrition) and connect them with appropriate clinical and social services providers. The ACE Team is seeking to add a team member who will be assigned to the following work hours: Tuesday to Friday: 11am – 7pm; Saturday: 10am – 6pm.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical assistance and aid to HIV clinic patient navigators on patient tracing and interviewing techniques.
• Interview HIV-diagnosed persons to elicit HIV-exposed partners, locate and notify partners, and administer HIV rapid testing in mobile settings to notified partners.
• Use HIV transmission network data to identify and reach out to not in care persons, including contact tracing. Connect persons who are not in HIV care with HIV clinical care providers.
• Trace and locate HIV-diagnosed persons who are out-of-care and connect them to clinical care.
• Engage HIV-diagnosed persons and their partners with HIV prevention and ancillary services.
• Link HIV-negative partners to PrEP providers for evaluation and counseling.
• Serve in an activated role reassigned to COVID-19 work within Surveillance/Epidemiology or Clinical Operations groups including but not limited to COVID-19 related investigations.
• Conduct patient and provider interview, medical record review of COVID-19 diagnosed persons to fulfill surveillance and case investigation data requirements.
• Conduct COVID-19 contact tracing and notification efforts. Administer and facilitate COVID-19 testing and vaccination efforts.
• Collect data on HIV cases to fulfill surveillance and case investigation data requirements, including medical record review, patient, and provider interviews.

Requirements

• A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college, including or supplemented by twelve semester credits in health education, or in health, social or biological sciences; or
• A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college, and six months of full-time satisfactory experience in a health promotion or disease intervention/prevention program, performing one or more of the following: interviewing, conducting field investigations, assessing health risks, making referrals, or collecting and analyzing epidemiological data; or
• A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent, and four years of full-time satisfactory experience as described in "2" above; or
• Education and/or experience equivalent to "1", "2" or "3" above. Undergraduate college credit can be substituted for experience on the basis of 30 semester credits from an accredited college for one year of full-time experience. However, all candidates must have a four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent, and either twelve semester credits as described in "1" above or six months of experience as described in "2" above.
• At least one year of experience as a Public Health Adviser, Assignment Level I, or at least one additional year of experience as described in Qualification Requirement "2" above.

Benefits

• a premium-free health insurance plan that saves employees over $10K annually, per a 2024 assessment.
• additional health, fitness, and financial benefits may be available based on the position’s associated union/benefit fund.
• a public sector defined benefit pension plan with steady monthly payments in retirement.
• a tax-deferred savings program
• a robust Worksite Wellness Program

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