Sec. 19a-121g. Program of services for AIDS-affected children and youths. - Connecticut Statutes

      Sec. 19a-121g. Program of services for AIDS-affected children and youths. (a) The Commissioner of Public Health shall establish and administer a program of services for children and youths who experience the illness or death of one or more family members to HIV disease. The commissioner shall, within available appropriations, annually provide funds for pilot projects, for purposes of the program, with local providers of child mental health services and AIDS services in the four areas of greatest AIDS prevalence in the state to establish and provide culturally-appropriate therapeutic support groups and outpatient and in-home mental health services, and to provide transportation to such services for children and youths. Contracts with such providers shall require collaboration between child mental health service providers and local AIDS service providers in the design and delivery of services to AIDS-affected children and their families. Eligibility for such services shall be limited to children who lack private, third-party insurance that covers such services and whose family income is equal to or less than two hundred fifty per cent of the federal poverty level, as well as to children eligible for Medicaid to the extent that Medicaid does not wholly cover the services provided through this program.

      (b) The commissioner shall, within available appropriations, conduct a training and outreach program designed to educate professionals in education, health, probate and juvenile law, and juvenile justice with regard to the program, the needs of children affected by AIDS and the importance of family-centered, culturally-appropriate services. Such training shall include information about the psychological impacts of parental illness and death from AIDS on children and youths, the epidemiology and clinical course of the disease, legal options available to families to assure permanency in placement for affected children and the services that are available within the state to children affected by AIDS.

      (P.A. 96-238, S. 24, 25; P.A. 06-196, S. 148.)

      History: P.A. 96-238 effective June 4, 1996; P.A. 06-196 made technical changes, effective June 7, 2006.