The role of peers in linkage, engagement, and retention in HIV care

Key take-home messages

• In the HIV community, a peer is someone living with HIV who contributes to positive health outcomes of other community members, but is not usually a health care professional with clinical training.
• Peers have made important contributions in HIV care, playing many roles and providing services such as education and social support.
• Randomized controlled trials of peer programs to improve linkage, engagement and retention in HIV care have not shown significant differences compared to non-peer programs. More research and evaluation are needed to demonstrate the impact of peers on linkage and engagement in care.
• Best practices for engaging peers in models of HIV care include protocols, procedures and checklists for beginning, expanding and implementing peer supports into HIV programming.
• Challenges to integrating peers into HIV care include administrative barriers, issues of disclosure and staff unfamiliarity with peer roles.

• Population(s)
  • General HIV+ population
• Engagement and Care Cascade
  • Linkage/engagement in care
  • Retention in care
• Health Systems
  • Delivery arrangements