The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), is accepting applications for fiscal year (FY) 2019 Minority AIDS Initiative - Substance Use Disorder Treatment for Racial/Ethnic Minority Populations at High-Risk for HIV/AIDS (Short

credit:

Title:
MAI – High Risk Populations) grants.

The purpose of this program is to increase engagement in care for racial and ethnic minority individuals with substance use disorders (SUD) and/or co-occurring substance use and mental disorders (COD) who are at risk for HIV or are HIV positive that receive HIV services/treatment.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in 2017, gay and bisexual men accounted for 66 percent of all HIV diagnoses in the United States.

In the same year, individuals who were HIV infected through heterosexual sex made up 24 percent of all HIV diagnoses.

The data also notes that in FY 2017 African Americans were most affected by HIV and accounted for 43 percent of all new HIV diagnoses while Hispanic/Latinos were also strongly affected and accounted for 26 percent of all new HIV diagnoses.

There are also variations by age as young people aged 13 to 24 are especially affected by HIV.

In 2017, young people accounted for 21 percent of all new HIV diagnoses.

All young people are not equally at risk, however.

Young gay and bisexual men accounted for 83 percent of all new HIV diagnoses in people aged 13 to 24 in 2017 (includes young gay and bisexual men who inject drugs), and young African American gay and bisexual men are even more impacted.

MAI – High Risk Populations grants are authorized under Section 509 of the Public Health Service Act, as amended.

The program aligns with SAMHSA’s Strategic Plan Priority #3 “Advancing Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery Support Services for Substance Use."