Open to candidates who are permanent or those who will be successfully applying for the Open-Competitive PUBLIC HEALTH ADVISER, Exam No. 5116 or the PROMOTION TO PUBLIC HEALTH ADVISER, Exam No. 5541 within the filing period From: October 9, 2024, To: October 29, 2024. AMENDED **

Established in 1805, the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (the NYC Health Department) is the oldest and largest health department in the country. Our mission is to protect and improve the health of all New Yorkers, in service of a vision of a city in which all New Yorkers can realize their full health potential, regardless of who they are, how old they are, where they are from, or where they live.

As a world-renowned public health agency with a history of building transformative public health programming and infrastructure, innovating in science and scholarship to advance public health knowledge, and responding to urgent public health crises from New York City’s yellow fever outbreak in 1822, to the COVID-19 pandemic we are a hub for public health innovation, expertise, and programs, and services. We serve as the population health strategist, and policy, and planning authority for the City of New York, while also having a vast impact on national and international public policy, including programs and services focused on food and nutrition, anti-tobacco support, chronic disease prevention, HIV/AIDS treatment, family and child health, environmental health, mental health, and racial and social justice work, among others.

Our Agency’s five strategic priorities, building off a recently-completed strategic planning process emerging from the COVID-19 emergency, are:
1) To re-envision how the Health Department prepares for and responds to health emergencies, with a focus on building a “response-ready” organization, with faster decision-making, transparent public communications, and stronger surveillance and bridges to healthcare systems 2) Address and prevent chronic and diet-related disease, including addressing rising rates of childhood obesity and the impact of diabetes, and transforming our food systems to improve nutrition and enhance access to healthy foods
3) Address the second pandemic of mental illness including: reducing overdose deaths, strengthening our youth mental health systems, and supporting people with serious mental illness
4) Reduce black maternal mortality and make New York a model city for women’s health
5) Mobilize against and combat the health impacts of climate change

Our 7,000-plus team members bring extraordinary diversity to the work of public health. True to our value of equity as a foundational element of all of our work, and a critical foundation to achieving population health impact in New York City, the NYC Health Department has been a leader in recognizing and dismantling racism’s impacts on the health of New Yorkers and beyond. In 2021, the NYC Board of Health declared racism as a public health crisis. With commitment to advance anti-racist public health practices that dismantle systems that perpetuate inequitable power, opportunity and access, the NYC Health Department continues to work in and with communities and community organizations to increase their access to health services and decrease avoidable health outcomes.

PROGRAM AND JOB DESCRIPTION: AMENDED 5.31.24

The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH)’s Bureau of Hepatitis, HIV, and Sexually Transmitted Infections (BHHS) oversees the City’s response to viral hepatitis, HIV, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Its mission is to improve the lives of New Yorkers by ending transmission, illness, stigma, and inequities related to viral hepatitis, HIV, and STIs. BHHS’s work includes testing initiatives; prevention, care, and treatment programming; epidemiology and surveillance; training and technical assistance; community engagement; social marketing; policy advocacy; and racial equity and social justice initiatives.

The ACE (Assess. Connect. Engage.) Team within BHHS is responsible for providing partner services to approximately 2000 New Yorkers newly diagnosed with HIV each year, including the identification, tracing, notification and HIV-testing of their sex and needle-sharing partners. ACE staff ensures that all newly HIV-diagnosed persons are offered linkage to HIV clinical care.

In addition, each year, ACE staff reaches out to approximately 3,000 people living with HIV (PWH) in NYC and appear to be out of care, this approach is known as Data to Care (D2C). ACE staff trace the out of care patients, and when found, connect them with HIV clinical care providers.

Since March 2020, COVID-19 prevalence and restrictive measures have had an impact on health seeking, including HIV testing and care behaviors in NYC. For all patients and partners, ACE staff assess their needs for additional medical and social services (e.g., Hepatitis C, sexually transmitted infections, COVID-19, housing, and nutrition) and connect them with appropriate clinical and social services providers.

ACE staff is responsible for outreach to the approximately 2,000 HIV providers and community-based organizations. ACE staff undertake the continuous education of providers and community members about HIV-related laws and regulations and build/maintain structure for timely reporting of HIV diagnosis and linkage to care and services for patients and partners to further curb further spread of HIV.

The Public Health Advisor II, under the direction of a Supervising Public Health Advisor will conduct the following major activities related to:

- Conduct community outreach, travel to all areas of the city by public transportation, car, and/or by foot, visiting clinics, hospitals, doctors, nurses and other medical providers, laboratories, schools, correctional facilities, work sites, homes, and other community-based locations of HIV-diagnosed persons and their partners.
- Interview HIV-diagnosed persons to elicit HIV-exposed partners, locate and notify partners, administer HIV, HCV and STI rapid testing in mobile settings to notified partners.
- Connect persons with a new HIV diagnosis to HIV clinical care providers.
- Use HIV transmission network data to identify and reach out to not in care persons, including contact tracing. Connect persons who are not in HIV care with HIV clinical care providers.
- Trace and locate HIV-diagnosed persons who are out-of-care and connect them to clinical care.
- Engage HIV-diagnosed persons and their partners with HIV prevention and ancillary services. Link HIV-negative partners to PrEP providers for evaluation and counseling.
- Link HIV-negative partners to PrEP providers for evaluation and counseling.
- Collect data on HIV cases to fulfill surveillance and case investigation data requirements, including medical record review, patient, and provider interviews.
- Serve in an activated role and reassigned to other work as needed by serving in an emergency role within Surveillance/Epidemiology or Clinical Operations groups.
- Conduct patient and provider interview, medical record review within activated role to fulfill surveillance and case investigation data requirements.

**IMPORTANT NOTES TO ALL CANDIDATES:

Please note: If you are called for an interview you will be required to bring to your interview copies of original documentation, such as:
- A document that establishes identity for employment eligibility, such as: A Valid U.S. Passport, Permanent Resident Card/Green Card, or Driver’s license.

- Proof of Education according to the education requirements of the civil service title.

- Current Resume

- Proof of Address/NYC Residency dated within the last 60 days, such as: Recent Utility Bill (i.e. Telephone, Cable, Mobile Phone)

Additional documentation may be required to evaluate your qualification as outlined in this posting’s “Minimum Qualification Requirements” section. Examples of additional documentation may be, but not limited to: college transcript, experience verification or professional trade licenses.

If after your interview you are the selected candidate you will be contacted to schedule an on-boarding appointment. By the time of this appointment you will be asked to produce the originals of the above documents along with your original Social Security card.

**LOAN FORGIVENESS

As a prospective employee of the City of New York, you may be eligible for federal loan forgiveness programs and state repayment assistance programs. For more information, please visit the U.S. Department of Education’s website at StudentAid.gov/PSLF.

"FINAL APPOINTMENTS ARE SUBJECT TO OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT & BUDGET APPROVAL”

“This position MAY be eligible for remote work up to two days per week, pursuant to the Remote Work Pilot Program.”

1. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college, including or supplemented by twelve semester credits in health education, or in health, social or biological sciences; or
2. A baccalaureate degree from an accredited college, and six months of full-time satisfactory experience in a health promotion or disease intervention/prevention program, performing one or more of the following: interviewing, conducting field investigations, assessing health risks, making referrals, or collecting and analyzing epidemiological data; or
3. A four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent, and four years of full-time satisfactory experience as described in "2" above; or
4. Education and/or experience equivalent to "1", "2" or "3" above. Undergraduate college credit can be substituted for experience on the basis of 30 semester credits from an accredited college for one year of full-time experience. However, all candidates must have a four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent, and either twelve semester credits as described in "1" above or six months of experience as described in "2" above.
Additional Requirements
A. To be assigned to Assignment Level II, candidates must have, in addition to meeting the minimum qualification requirements listed above, at least one year of experience as a Public Health Adviser, Assignment Level I, or at least one additional year of experience as described in Qualification Requirement "2" above.

Patient interview, contact tracing/partner notification, medical record review, and community outreach experience Excellent written and oral communication Fluent English and either Spanish or French/Creole preferred NYS Driver's License highly desirable Must be able to work alternative hours (evening and weekends).

New York City residency is generally required within 90 days of appointment. However, City Employees in certain titles who have worked for the City for 2 continuous years may also be eligible to reside in Nassau, Suffolk, Putnam, Westchester, Rockland, or Orange County. To determine if the residency requirement applies to you, please discuss with the agency representative at the time of interview.

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic, including but not limited to an individual's sex, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, veteran status, gender identity, or pregnancy.

Apply Shortlist

Public Health Advisor II, Bureau of Hepatitis, HIV, and STI