Clínica de Familia La Romana’s unique, multi-disciplinary, family-centered approach includes specialized medical care, social services, community outreach, prevention, and education programs provided through these key clinics and programs
1.HIV Vertical Transmission Prevention Program
This program was established in 1999 as the first program of Clínica de Familia, and is aimed at preventing the transmission of HIV from pregnant women to their babies. It was the first program of its kind in the Dominican Republic to provide triple antiretroviral therapy, effectively reducing the rate of transmission from around 40% with no intervention to less than 3%. This extremely effective program served as the basis for changing the national treatment guidelines to reflect the La Romana protocol.
2.Comprehensive HIV Care
Clínica de Familia, which uses a family-centered approach, is one of the largest HIV clinics in the Dominican Republic, providing medical care, antiretroviral treatment, and preventative services to more than 2400 children and adults with HIV. Each person who is newly diagnosed with HIV is started immediately on antiretroviral treatment and provided psycho-social support services.
3.Adolescent Program
Clínica de Familia Adolescent Program began in 2008 and currently includes reproductive health services for teens and community and school-based comprehensive sex education programs.
4.Women's Clinic
This program provides services for sex workers, including reproductive health services and sexually transmitted infection (STI) care and treatment. In addition to medical services provided at the clinic, these vulnerable clients receive education and counseling both at the clinic and at the brothels where they work. This program has been extremely successful at lowering HIV prevalence in La Romana’s sex worker population.
5.Comprehensive Health Clinic
This program provides services for trans women and men who are at risk for STIs and HIV, including men who have sex with men, clients of sex workers, and batey residents. The program is focused on preventive health services, including circumcision services, and sexually transmitted infection care and treatment, and includes a community outreach component, focused on prevention and recruitment to come to the clinic for medical check-ups and testing.
6.Mental health and psycho-social support services
Clínica de Familia´s holistic model of care includes mental health counseling services, medication adherence counseling, and HIV test counseling. In addition, the social work department helps provide case management, primarily to clients with HIV, and also oversees a kitchen garden project to address issues of food insecurity and a pediatric nutrition program aimed at reducing malnutrition in children with HIV. The community health promotion program includes outreach workers focused on prevention in key populations, providing support to clients with HIV and their families, and providing navigation services for clients at risk of being lost-to-follow-up.
7.Primary Care Services
Clínica de Familia offers high quality, low cost medical services to the community in general. These services include primary care, obstetrics, gynecology, pediatrics, cardiology, diabetes care, nutrition, pulmonology, nephrology, internal medicine, dermatology and family planning services. Additionally, the clinic offers imaging and diagnostic services, including x-rays, ultrasounds, echocardiograms, electrocardiograms, and laboratory testing.
8.Programs for Children
Clínica de Familia´s pediatric HIV program is made up of a multidisciplinary team of pediatricians, nurses, health promoters, social workers, and psychologists who work together to provide the best care possible to this very vulnerable population. Clinic psychologists and educators also facilitate support groups for adolescents with HIV, which focus on helping them accept their diagnosis, support one another, know that they are not alone, and give them tools for successfully managing their HIV diagnosis, with a particular focus on their emotional well-being and adherence to treatment.
Clínica de Familia´s pediatric nutrition program provides support to malnourished children with HIV, providing them with monthly food packets, home visits that include education and counseling, and clinical follow-up with our pediatricians. The program includes graduation ceremonies for children that are no longer malnourished, which incorporate educational sessions into the activity program. A kitchen garden project complements the pediatric nutrition program. Participants receive technical assistance with their gardens and donations of soil, seeds, plants and tools. This program has helped reduce the food insecurity of participating families.
Each December, the clinic organizes a holiday party for all of the children up until age 12. The children participate in games, dances and contests, eat lots of yummy food, and all receive gifts at the end of the party.
Clínica de Familia held Camp Home and Joy for children with HIV from 2005-2019, with the goal of providing campers an opportunity to have fun during a one-week camp, by engaging in activities that boost their confidence and self-esteem. The camp provided a safe environment where children with HIV received support, love, affection, and respect. Unfortunately, Camp Hope and Joy was ended due to the risks posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in 2021, Clínica de Familia started a new program, called Camp for a Day, for children and adolescents living with HIV.