Social Work and the HIV Care Continuum: Assisting HIV Patients Diagnosed in an Emergency Department.

Social workers have played an integral role in society's response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic since the discovery of the disease. As the landscape of the epidemic has changed, so has the social work response to it. Social workers are, and have been, central to the success of TESTAZ (Test, Educate, Support, and Treat Arizona), which is a nontargeted, routine opt-out HIV screening program in the emergency department (ED) of Maricopa Medical Center. This article focuses on the crucial role social workers play in every stage of program development, implementation, and patient movement through the stages of the HIV care continuum. Social worker involvement with HIV-positive patients diagnosed in the ED is imperative to achieving patient viral suppression.