Health Promoter Services Program | Directly Observed Therapy Program | Leadership Programs

 
PACT’s Directly Observed Therapy (DOT) program was created in response to the needs of persistently ill PACT participants whose adherence to treatment regimens and medical condition failed to improve even with intensive case management.  Participants in DOT receive daily visits from a community health promoter, who ensures that each patient consistently takes his or her once-a-day anti-retroviral medications.  In addition to helping improve medication compliance, community health promoters support their patients’ struggles with barriers to adherence such as depression, substance abuse, and social isolation.  The overarching goal of the DOT program is to assist participants by helping them develop the skills necessary to adhere to treatment regimens.

A large majority of DOT patients see marked improvement in key medical indicators shortly after beginning the program and soon have renewed hope for the future.  Recent studies show that patients enrolled in the program for 12 months experience an average increase in CD4 count from a dangerously low 133 cells per microliter to an acceptable level of 293. A typical PACT patient sees a 78% drop in the concentration of HIV in his or her bloodstream. One Boston-area hospital reported that hospitalizations of high-risk AIDS patients enrolled in the PACT program decreased by 17% and the costs for each inpatient stay dropped by 37%. PACT is working to accommodate an increasing demand for services and to expand this cost effective, life-saving adherence intervention system to other communities.