When Dr. Erica Campbell asked Dr. Michelle Bates to help her apply for an HIV/AIDS grant to help students at Fayetteville State University this fall, Dr. Bates was involved for three reasons. One was particularly personal.
She considers Campbell a mentor, who has family members diagnosed with HIV and AIDS, and who hopes to help social work students gain a deeper understanding of communities affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. We supported a grant initiative to help people receive care.
Ms. Campbell is an associate professor of social work and has been at FSU for 10 years, earning a bachelor's degree in social work program director. Ms. Bates is an FSU graduate, licensed clinical social worker, and assistant professor who has been a member of the FSU faculty since 2017.
A $55,000 grant from the AIDS United Southern Impact Fund will go to students in FSU's Graduate School of Social Work.
For Bates, this topic is very close to home. Her family was greatly affected several years ago when her aunt was diagnosed with her HIV and died of AIDS.
She and Campbell believe this grant will reduce testing, access to health care, low HIV knowledge, and low risk perception among African Americans, impacting Cumberland County and the broader rural community. They hope to address social and racial issues and barriers, such as HIV-related stigma. situation.
Cumberland County ranks fourth in the state for new HIV infections in 2023 with 84 new cases, up from 78 in 2022, according to the latest data from the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services.
The state's latest full-year data from 2022 shows 36,581 people in North Carolina are infected with HIV/AIDS, including 774 new cases of HIV/AIDS among African Americans. ing.
The Fayetteville Observer reported last week that Campbell and Bates will be investing in the grant, a virtual simulation-based skills lab and four-week curriculum to teach students about HIV/AIDS disparities, prevention, interventions, treatments, and services. We talked about how the grant money will be used.
Their answers are below and have been edited for length and clarity.
What kind of work was involved in applying for the grant?
Bates: Dr. Campbell was a mentor to me. So when she asks me to participate in a project, I always say yes. Dr. Campbell did most of the heavy lifting. For me, she asked me to research certain parameters regarding the statistics of our area…because, of course, our students primarily serve within this community . So we wanted to make sure we had the correct data.
Why did you apply for an AIDS/HIV-specific grant?
Campbell: The reason I decided on the HIV grant is because here in Cumberland County, the Black community has very high rates and statistics when it comes to HIV and AIDS.
Especially here in social work, we don't have the content or knowledge to educate students about how to intervene, educate, and prevent HIV.
When our students graduate from this program, they will have a skill set to work with disadvantaged and marginalized populations and a general knowledge of almost any type of content area.
Therefore, our content is designed to help students not only understand what HIV is, but also its impact on the individuals they work with, the communities they work with, and their families and friends. I was interested in developing a curriculum for We are also working on these issues.
There is a particular focus on HIV and AIDS. How does it apply to social work?
bates: Social work is a very unique profession because there are several different paths you can take in social work. It's more than what people see on TV when children are removed from their homes… Social workers provide the most therapeutic intervention services of any other profession.
We have social workers in the medical field. We have social workers who work with active military or veterans. We have a social worker in private practice who provides therapeutic intervention. We have social workers who work in animal shelters. We work everywhere and we're going to come across people (with HIV or AIDS) in our community.
How will the grant be used?
Campbell said he wants to integrate technology into the social work space “to prepare students to work in a real-world environment.”
He and Bates said part of the grant will go towards creating a virtual reality lab where students can use computers to simulate clients they might have as social workers.
Campbell: It's very helpful to create these real-life settings where students can practice in a very safe environment as well as in a controlled environment before going out into the field.
Can you tell us more about your lab? How does the simulation work?
Bates: The hope is to be able to interact with (artificial intelligence) simulated clients. We reached out to several vendors… They have different types of technology that respond to AI clients, and based on how the user responds, the AI system can The response determines how to generate the response…
As a therapist, you must pivot and refocus the intervention services you are implementing and depending on the client's response.
So, could you have two different students have two separate interactions based on their responses?
Bates: yes. We also discussed installing a TV monitor on the wall to replay the students so we could see how they responded to the client and provide feedback.
Campbell: One of the goals of the simulation was to not only make sure students actually understood and were aware of stigma, but also to ensure that people's awareness of what it's like to be infected with HIV and AIDS. It is also important to check how speciesism and gender discrimination will affect your work if you continue to do so. Individuals dealing with HIV and AIDS need to assess and reflect on how to better serve and understand their populations.
What does this look like to students who are interested in this? Will they enroll in a specific class or will he discuss it for a month as part of a separate course?
campbell: So I want to do two different rollouts. At this time, this will be the course curriculum that students will take for her four weeks during the summer, and will include all items such as content, lectures, guests, simulations, and experiences.
Also, what I would like to do is, in the future, actually build this into their field experience so that all students graduating from the (social work) program actually experience it. You're going to have to.
So, is this something for everyone in a social work program, regardless of their specific focus in the field of social work?
campbell: Yes…this is a huge need here in Cumberland County and I think every social worker graduating from this program should have some knowledge and awareness about HIV and AIDS.
When do courses start for students?
Campbell: Today I sat down with our IT department and gave them a deadline to have everything up and running by May. This course actually starts in July so he wanted to at least get the simulation lab up and running. We hope to be up and running by May and have the curriculum and everything developed by June at the latest.
Is this only for one semester or will other students continue?
bates: We would like to not only use this grant but also use it on an ongoing basis so that students can continue to learn and take advantage of the lab.
Is there anything else you would like to add about the grant, its purpose, and the goals for students to benefit from the grant?
Bates: Whatever Dr. Campbell asks me to do, I'm going to jump on it, because she's amazing. (Also) this was a very personal thing for me. What I couldn't share with Dr. Campbell. She doesn't know this yet, but I had an aunt. Her mother's only sister died from complications of AIDS. At the time of her death, there was a lot of ignorance about her HIV-AIDS, so she stopped taking her medication and ended up transitioning from HIV to her AIDS.
So my mother's passion was really educating people about what HIV is. We've come a long way in education with things you can't get with hugs and stuff like that… In (my aunt's) situation, it wasn't the drug use. It was a partner she trusted. So, for me, I wanted to do that to tell her mother what we were doing.
Campbell: We know we're in the Bible Belt, and I think that has a lot to do with the stigma around HIV and AIDS…particularly in the social work field, I think that's very worrying. I know it's the right thing to do. You will be dealing with a large number of affected individuals as well as affected communities.
So it was a personal goal of mine to make sure that we produced highly capable, educated social change activists who could go out into the world and work with this population. Also, one of the things that I hope is that I can continue to engage with different stakeholders on this subject…that I can continue to engage with students, continue to connect with them, and continue to introduce them to experts. is. I think that will be very powerful.
Staff writer Rachael Riley can be reached at rriley@fayobserver.com or 910-486-3528.
