Living and Loving in Technocolor

Looking for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Service Providers? There’s an App for That.

By Aisha Moore, Communications Director, AIDS.gov

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Little is more powerful than taking action to find or help someone else find services for his/her health. Last year on World AIDS Day, people conducted  over 60,000 searches, 30% of which were mobile, on the HIV/AIDS Prevention & Service Provider Locator to help connect people to services offering testing, treatment and care.

Originally launched in June 2010 by members of the Federal HIV/AIDS Web Council, the HIV/AIDS Prevention & Service Provider Locator is a location-based search tool that allows you to search for these service providers near your current location:

• HIV testing
• Housing assistance
• Health centers
• Ryan White HIV Care
• Mental health
• Substance Abuse
• Family planning

Since then, the Locator has gone from the web, to a widget, mobile, Facebook , an API and now it is available as an app  for your iPhone and iPad. Anyone with an iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch can download and use this free app. Outreach workers, social workers, and other clinicians will be able to find services for their clients anytime and anywhere.

How it works

1. Download the app  from the iTunes store.
2. Allow the app to use your mobile phone GPS to find sites near your current location or type in the ZIP code for another location.
3. The results are populated on a Google map. You can filter your results by selecting one or more of the provider categories.
4. Select any of the results to link to the organization’s webpage and find directions via Google Maps.

New Features

The iPhone app has a few new features that you won’t find on the web or mobile versions.

• The map around the results (map pins) automatically update (in the web version you would have to type in a new address to get new results).
• You can use the app in disconnected mode once data is downloaded for an area. This means you can access the results of your last search even if you aren’t online.

The results

The locator includes data from:

• Housing: HUD’s Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS (HOPWA) Program
• Mental Health & Substance Abuse: Substanse Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA)
• AIDS Care Services & Health Centers: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)
• HIV Testing: CDC
• Family Planning: Office of Population Affairs

Download the app, tell your friends, and take action. We especially recommend the app for social workers, those doing street outreach, and others who link people to services. If you don’t have an iPhone, visit http://locator.aids.gov to use the web or mobile version.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please give us your feedback via a blog comment or by selecting the app’s feedback button in the upper right corner.