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 programs.
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 near-elimination. This extremely effective program served as the basis for the Ministry of Health to change the national treatment guidelines to reflect the Clínica de Familia´s protocol.
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 2600 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.
Clínica de Familia’s Adolescent Program began in 2008 and currently includes reproductive health services for teens, as well as community and school-based comprehensive sex education programs.
Comprehensive Health Clinic for Key Populations
This program provides services for sex workers, 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 primary care, 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.
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, family medicine, psychiatry, urology, orthopedics, geriatrics, palliative care, infectious disease, ear, nose and throat, dermatology and family planning services. Additionally, the clinic offers imaging and diagnostic services, including x-rays, ultrasounds, echocardiograms, electrocardiograms, biopsies, and laboratory testing.
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, family medicine, psychiatry, urology, orthopedics, geriatrics, palliative care, infectious disease, ear, nose and throat, dermatology and family planning services. Additionally, the clinic offers imaging and diagnostic services, including x-rays, ultrasounds, echocardiograms, electrocardiograms, biopsies, and laboratory testing.
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. 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 began Camp Hope and Joy for children with HIV in 2005. This summer camp provides an opportunity for the children to have fun in a safe and loving environment and is filled with activities aimed at improving their mental health and self-esteem.
Camp Hope and Joy, organized annually by the Clínica de Familia since 2005, has been a beacon of light for children and adolescents who, despite facing the challenges of HIV, have found a safe and supportive environment where they can simply be kids. For many of these young people, the camp represents a respite from the emotional burden of their condition, allowing them to realize that they are not alone in their struggle.
This year, Clínica de Familia organized a camp excursion for 15 HIV-positive children aged 6 to 12 in Santo Domingo in July (which was an unforgettable day for the campers) and then Camp Hope and Joy in Cumayasa, La Romana in August for 30 HIV-positive adolescents aged 13 to 18. The Children’s Global Health Fund (through individual donors), International Women’s Club, Grupo Ramos, Bio-Nuclear, Agua El Edén, and Oficentro Rosa supported the camp.
Starting in 1999, Columbia University medical and public health students began to do global health rotations in La Romana, giving birth to a program at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons that in 2013 became formalized as The Program for Education in Global and Population Health. Today, global health experiences at Clínica de Familia La Romana are offered to international, Dominican, and U.S. volunteers, trainees, and students in medicine, public health, nursing, psychology, social work and other health science fields The program aims to enhance cultural competence, knowledge of HIV care and treatment, and improve care for vulnerable populations in the Dominican Republic. For inquiries and application information, please send an email to: estudiantes@clinicadefamilia.org.do.
ACADEMIC PARTNERS
- Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
- City University of New York
- Columbia University
- Instituto Tecnológico (INTEC)
- Johns Hopkins University
- Northwestern University
- Pontificia Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra
- Rutgers University
- Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo
- Universidad de las Américas Puebla
- Universidad Eugenio María de Hostos
- Universidad Federico Henríquez y Carvajal
- Universidad Iberoamericana
- Universidad Nacional Evangélica
- Universidad Nacional Pedro Henríquez Ureña
- Universidad O y M
- University of California San Francisco
- University of Colorado
- University of Illinois Chicago
- University of Massachusetts
- University of Michigan
- University of Pennsylvania
- University of Texas Medical Branch
- University of Texas San Antonio
- University of Washington
Research is an important aspect of Clínica de Familia´s work, and its original research projects on public health issues and interventions provide vital new information for local, national and global understanding and planning. Published research has included studies about HIV prevalence among pregnant women, male circumcision, disclosure of HIV diagnosis to children, an analysis of the HIV treatment cascade, a family planning health coaching model, STI prevalence in key populations, an evaluation of the clinic’s sex education program, and the use of infographics with HIV-positive clients, among many others. Research funding has been provided by Columbia University, University of Colorado, the National Institutes of Health, the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Grand Challenges Canada, among others. A list with links to recent Clínica de Familia publications can be found on their website.
In the past 25 years, Clínica de Familia in La Romana, Dominican Republic, has succeeded in reducing the rate of mother-to-child HIV transmission in La Romana Province from 40% to nearly zero. Today, it continues to operate one of the country’s largest outpatient HIV/AIDS treatment programs.
Over time the program has also evolved and expanded its scope to provide outreach, education, prevention services, and care and treatment to vulnerable populations, including adolescents, sex workers, men who have sex with men, people with chronic diseases, and the general population.
191,469
SERVICES
43,200
CLIENTS
35,643
Medical Consultations
12,877
Diagnostic Imaging Services
11,083
Family Planning Consultations
137,447
Lab Tests
2,614
Active Clients with HIV
92%
Clients with Suppressed Viral Load
100%
HIV-negative Newborn
10,685
HIV Consultations
6,176
HIV Testing and Counseling Sessons
Lilian is 47 years old, and she realized she was living with HIV when a community counselor from Clínica de Familia provided her with counseling and an HIV test in the community in September 2021. Immediately a community health promoter began supporting her, given her fragile health. Lilian had severe weight loss, inability to walk, dizziness and respiratory distress most of the time. In addition to starting antiretroviral therapy and medical care, Lilian also began receiving home visits and family
The treatment, the frequency of visits, nutritional support and the collaboration of the family allowed Lilian ́s physical and mental health to improve rapidly. By the end of 2021, Lilian achieved an undetectable viral load and began providing support in a family business, in addition to attending rehabilitation sessions, which improved her mobility. Both she and her family have expressed their gratitude to the staff at Clínica de Familia. Every day, Clínica de Familia is putting its mission into action by saving lives, just like Lilian’s.