Making HIV Care and Treatment Work for Women, 30 for 30 Campaign, March 2012.

The 30 for 30 Campaign briefing paper "Making HIV Care and Treatment Work for Women," is a compilation of the most recent data on issues facing women in the HIV care and treatment response with analysis and recommendations to strengthen and implement policies and programs that work for women. With input from the broad range of organizations and individuals that make up the 30 for 30 Campaign this briefing paper along with the companion briefing papers "Making HIV Prevention Work for Women," and "Ending HIV-Related Health Care Disparities for Women," make up an advocacy portfolio for those working to improve the lives of women living with and affected by HIV.

With the implementation of the National HIV/AIDS Strategy (NHAS), the Affordable Care Act (ACA), and the continuation of the Ryan White CARE Act, we find ourselves in a fast-paced and dramatically changing health care delivery environment for all people. For people living with or affected by HIV these changes will provide great opportunities and challenges.

The Affordable Care Act has already provided opportunities for great strides in women's health including the adoption of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) guidelines on women's preventive health such as free HIV testing, intimate partner violence prevention and counseling, and sexually transmitted infection (STI) counseling. These types of critical services for women must also be explicitly integrated into HIV prevention and care.

A strong evidence base exists indicating that to be effective, HIV prevention, care, treatment services for women must be family-centered, gender-responsive, and integrated. Such services are inevitably more resource-intensive than most HIV-related services currently provided in the U.S. – services designed over the last three decades primarily to meet the needs of men with no dependent children – but are ultimately more cost-effective.