Community Adolescent Treatment Supporters Project (CATS)

Dream Village provides a package of differentiated services for children, adolescents and young people living with HIV so that they know, understand accept their HIV status; that they start and remain on Antiretroviral treatment with understanding and confidence; that they remain engaged in treatment, care and support services and that they feel cared for, understood, supported and valued. Services are primarily led by trained, mentored adolescents and young people living with HIV, known as Community Adolescent Treatment Supporters or ‘CATS’. CATS provide information, counselling and support for other children, adolescents and young people living with HIV through home visits, clinic visits, support groups and MHealth. Services are fully integrated within national systems and service delivery across the HIV care cascade.

CATS are young people 18-27 years, who work between the health facilities and homes of children, adolescents and young people living with HIV (CAYPLHIV) with the goal of improving outcomes across the HIV care cascade. They are selected by the health facilities, trained, and certified by Dream village and the Ministry of Health/RBC. CATS as they commonly called in different health facilities are integrated within the health facilities from where they support a caseload of CAYPLHIV both in the community and clinic, under the supervision of the clinic staff. Additional mentorship and clinical supervision is provided by the Dream village Mentor and Rwanda Biomedical Centre/ Ministry of Health RBC. The CATS project is in 10 health centres, Kabuga, Remera, Kinyinya, Kagugu, Biryogo, Rwampara, Kicukiro, Coronum, Kabusunzu and Gikondo.