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