Spring 2006

Prevention Case Management (PCM) is now called Comprehensive Risk Counseling and Services (CRCS). CDC made this change in order to reduce confusion among providers and clients regarding differences between CRCS and other case management systems. We will be using ‘PCM’ in this manual to refer only to previous PCM programs.

Document Overview

What are the reasons for this new Implementation Manual?

Because CRCS is a complex intervention, there has been ongoing demand for more detailed resources. Many agencies have indicated that they need hands-on tools and guidance, in addition to the various trainings that are available for CRCS, to help meet day-to-day implementation challenges. We developed this manual, based on the 1997 Prevention Case Management Guidance¹, for that purpose.

We also wanted to share lessons learned from previous PCM projects, including the PHIPP (Prevention with HIV-positive Persons) and AHP (Advancing HIV Prevention) PCM demonstration projects.

Finally, we encourage you to share your feedback on this manual with us, with an eye toward improving our guidance on CRCS and the work that we all do against HIV and AIDS. In addition, we look forward to your input on the new CRCS website, accessible at: http://www.cdc.gov/hiv/topics/prev_prog/crcs/ by July 2006.

This manual is intended to provide day-to-day guidance and assistance for implementing your CRCS intervention. It should also be used as a general guide to planning CRCS services and developing your agency’s CRCS protocols. You also need to take into account the characteristics of your clients, location, community, resources, and local and state laws as you develop your agency-specific program guidelines and intervention protocols.

The data collection templates and other tools appended to this manual are provided as examples and are not required by CDC, although some of the variables may be required by PEMS for programs funded by CDC. We have indicated those items by the superscript ^®, followed by the respective PEMS table and item number. Optional PEMS variables are indicated by *. You can use these templates as they are, adapt them to suit your agency, or you may find other tools more useful for your program. References to the relevant data collection template occur at the end of each section rather than when the topic is first mentioned.

Finally, the CDC/DHAP CRCS workgroup would like to thank the health department and CBO staffs and others whose hard work, critical thinking, and perspectives provided the impetus and information for this manual.

- The CDC/DHAP CRCS Workgroup