SPH grad student works weekly to provide HIV tests to community

Heydi Correa-Encarnacion sits in the upstairs library of the Latino Cultural center just like she does every Monday. She is waiting for someone to come through for an HIV test.

The School of Public Health graduate student conducts weekly free HIV testing at La Casa through an IU Health Bloomington program called Postive Link. She is also a health educator.

“HIV is seen as something that people don’t speak of in the community,” she said. “It’s kind of voodoo to talk about.”

Correa-Encarnacion seeks to provide resources to the Latino community and the IU community as a whole. It was she who developed the partnership with La Casa two years ago.

“Basically, one of the things that the center tries to do is to look at students in a holistic way, and health is one of them,” said Lillian Casillas, director of the Latino Cultural Center.

When students come for testing at La Casa, Correa-Encarnacion helps them to fill out forms, including consent forms and questionnaires about their sexual history for the last 12 months.

“If for some reason we find that they’re engaging in high-risk sexual behavior, we have a conversation with them about how to lower that risk,” Correa-Encarnacion said.

The entire session lasts about 20 minutes, and subjects receive their results during the session.

Correa-Encarnacion has never herself handed out a positive result, but all Positive Link staff members go through training on how to handle that situation.

“Most of it is letting the individual kind of have their moment,” she said.

She added that they are also legally required to obtain the individual’s information and get them into treatment.

“We’re not just gonna leave you alone and say ‘you do this by yourself,’” she said.

Correa-Encarnacion hopes to help people understand HIV and feel more comfortable talking about it.

She said she feels there’s very limited understanding in most communities of how the disease manifests itself.

“It’s no longer a death sentence. It’s no longer something that’s gonna kill you right away,” she said.

In her future, Correa-Encarnacion hopes to reach a national level with a Latino health organization and work to implement, create and see programs through, which she said isn’t far away from what she’s doing now.

She also does community education.

“Anybody could become HIV positive if they’re not careful,” she said.

She is responsible for the partnership that La Casa and Postive Link have developed, and aside from her interest in helping the Lation community, said she thought that bringing programs such as this one to IU’s campus was necessary.

“It’s been growing, slowly but surely,” she said. “But I think we’re making pretty good strides, and I’m pretty proud of the work that’s been done.”

Follow reporter Anna Hyzy on Twitter @annakhyzy.