THE EVALUATION OF HIV COUNSELING-AND-TESTING SERVICES - MAKING THE MOST OF LIMITED RESOURCES

The evaluation of HIV counseling, testing, referral, and partner notif ication (CTRPN) services are especially important given the rapid, rel evant changes in counseling strategies, public policies, and testing t echnologies. Here we briefly review the important components of a comp rehensive HIV CTRPN evaluation. However, resources for evaluation are usually quite limited, thus making comprehensive evaluations impossibl e. Yet even with limited resources, meaningful evaluative activities c an be performed and some pressing evaluation questions answered. As an illustration, we present a practical evaluation project (conducted wi th limited resources) that assessed at a systems level the HIV counsel ing and testing (HIV CT) program in the state of Wisconsin. We describ e how some of this evaluative information was utilized by the state's division of health.