Core Competencies Index Report

In May 2016, NASTAD Board Chair, DeAnn Gruber of Louisiana, announced her Chair’s Challenge calling on health departments to accelerate the end of the HIV and hepatitis epidemics in the United States.

In support of this challenge, NASTAD assessed state health departments across fourteen core competencies, highlighting strengths and identifying areas for improvement. The assessment was designed to determine the minimum program and policy building blocks, or core competencies, that must be in place to support highly effective HIV prevention and care programs, and assess where health departments land on the core competencies continuum.

This first summary report of NASTAD’s national assessment focuses on jurisdictional health department HIV program core competencies. While many HIV program successes are recognized in the summary report, program and policy implementation challenges exist that need to be addressed to ensure that all HIV programs are on the pathway to end the HIV epidemic in the U.S.