HIV/AIDS Prevention and Education Services Material Review

As required by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), any federal monies used to purchase and/or develop educational materials or educational material used by staff supported by CDC funds must be reviewed by an HIV/AIDS Material Review Panel prior to their use. Educational materials are defined as: written, pictorials, audiovisuals, questionnaires, survey instruments, agendas for conferences, and plans for educational sessions. This would include World Wide Web pages and client satisfaction surveys.

All proposed materials utilized outside of King County must be submitted to the State HIV/AIDS Material Review Panel. If materials are limited to the Seattle/King County area, the Public Health Seattle & King County Material Review Panel must review them.

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How Do I Submit Material(s)?

The State HIV/AIDS Review Panel does not meet on a routine basis. To better meet the agency's needs, the panel remains ready to review materials as they arrive. Materials for review must be submitted directly to Frank E. Hayes at the Department of Health, HIV Prevention and Education Services, PO Box 47840, Olympia Washington 98504-7840. The review process takes approximately 4 weeks. Activities included in this time are: receiving the material, selecting panel members, mailing out material for review, time for members to review and return material, and providing the results of the panel to the submitting agency.

Materials should be submitted with a clear indication of intended population for each submission; name of the program/intervention; type of material (i.e. flyer, video, pamphlet, etc.); goal of the program; and locating information for the person requesting the review.

The listing of intended populations, used by the Panel, is provided below.

General Public*
Youth	- Youth at Risk - Subpopulation (specify)
Men Who Have Sex with Men	- Subpopulation (specify)
Intravenous Drug Users	- Subpopulation (specify)
Heterosexuals	- Subpopulation (specify e.g. Women, POC)
HIV Infected Persons
Transgender
Other (specify)

* General Public materials that provide education regarding any sexually transmitted disease must comply with RCW 70.24.200 and emphasize the importance of abstinence, sexual fidelity and the avoidance of substance abuse.

Please provide 5 copies of the materials you are submitting for review. Text and graphics must be completed and in the final ready to be reproduced format.

A Word file of a proposed letter of submission (in draft form) is available that can be edited to reflect the material being submitted.

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What Happens Once Material(s) is Submitted?

DOH Review

When materials are submitted, they will be reviewed by the State HIV/AIDS Material Review Panel Chair to make sure they fit the review criteria and have not been submitted by another agency and approved at an earlier date.

Material will be returned to the submitting agency without review if:

Not HIV-related materials;
Not Funded or utilized by program staff who are federally funded;
Not Consistent with contract activities;
Does not meet reasonable standards for accuracy and grammar; and/or
Not submitted as requested in the "How Do I Submit Material" section;

General Public materials will be reviewed to comply with RCW 70.24.200 (provides education regarding any sexually transmitted disease and emphasizes the importance of abstinence, sexual fidelity and the avoidance of substance abuse).

Surveys will be reviewed in-house for technical assistance needs by staff from the Infectious Disease and Reproductive Health Assessment Unit. Surveys, in some cases, may also be subject to the State’s Institutional Review Board.

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HIV/AIDS Material Review Panel Role

Materials are provided to three to five panel members and reviewed in accordance with the Content of AIDS-Related Written Materials, Pictorials, Audiovisuals, Questionnaires, Survey Instruments, and Educational Session in the Center for Disease Control Assistance Program Interim Revisions June 1992.

The role of the review panel is "…to consider the appropriateness of messages designed to communicate with various groups." Materials are reviewed to ensure they are appropriate for the specified intended population provided by the submitter.

Materials will also be reviewed to insure that they do not:

"…promote or encourage, directly, homosexual or heterosexual sexual activity or intravenous substance abuse…[however] may not be construed to restrict the ability of an education program that includes the information required…to provide accurate information about various means to reduce an individual’s risk of exposure to, or the transmission of, the etiologic agent for acquired immune deficiency syndrome, provide that any information materials used are not obscene."

Include activities, which have "…attendees participating in sexually suggestive physical contact or actual sexual practices."

Scope of the review panel
"The panel is authorized to review materials only and is not empowered either to evaluate the proposal as a whole…"

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HERR Material Review Checklist

Materials will be reviewed utilizing an adapted CDC HERR Materials Review checklist (from their HERR Guidelines) to provide feedback on quality of materials. This is provided as feedback and is not conditional to approval of the materials.

Form utilization will be determined by DOH upon initial review and then will be referred for input from the State HIV/AIDS Material Review Panel. An HIV/AIDS Material Review Panel member will use the Material Review Checklist during their review of a particular submission.

Sample Review Checklist Document

TITLE:	AUTHOR:
REVIEWED BY:	DATE:

Check the appropriate columns to indicate degree to which the educational materials met the criteria. Check only within and not between the boxes. If undecided, use "comments" section to clarify.

	Excellent	Satisfactory (Adequately addressed)	Needs Attn (Needs attention)	N/A (Does not apply)
1. Purpose of materials is clear to readers?
2. Major points of text are summarized at the end and key points are highlighted in some way?		Sample Document completed by reviewer
3. Materials are brief, concise, and appropriate (language/terms) for the intended population?
4. Materials educational and reading levels are appropriate for intended population?
5. Materials reflect values of the intended population?
6. Materials provide current and accurate medical information?
COMMENTS:
	APPROVED		DISAPPROVED

Adapted from the CDC HERR Guidelines, 1995

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Who is On The State HIV/AIDS Material Review Panel?

The Material Review Panel membership currently consists of:

NAME	OCCUPATION	AFFILIATION
Lou Ann Carter	Social Worker and Student	DSHS
Lorenzo Cervantes	Case Manager	Pierce County AIDS Foundation
Fredrick R. Hall	Community Member	Camano Island, Washington
Frank E. Hayes (Chair)	Health Services Consultant	WA State Department of Health (Health Department Representative)
Lisa St. John	Outreach Worker	Spokane Regional Health District
Susie Johnson	Community Member	Mt. Vernon, Washington
Tim Mallow	Community Member	Seattle, Washington
Bonnie Nickel, RN, MPH	Community Member	Tumwater, Washington
Marla Russo	Health Services Consultant	Washington State Department of Health
Kelly Scott	Community Member	Seattle, Washington
Hakeem Shakoor	Community Member	Tacoma, Washington
Joe Vela	Case Manager	Benton-Franklin Health District
Dennis Worsham	Regional Health Officer	Public Health Seattle-King County

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When and How Do I Find Out About What’s Been Reviewed?

A letter will be sent to the agency (with a copy to the Regional Coordinator) providing the results of the panel members’ decision concerning the material. The letter will specify the intended population, type of item, name of the item, and may have comments from the panel, which are for the submitter’s information. The letter will also provide the panel’s approval/disapproval of the item. If any submitted item is to be disapproved for use by the panel members, prior to a disapproval letter being issued, the chair of the panel will call the submitting agency to discuss the concerns and reasons for disapproval. If the submitting agency addresses the panels’ concerns, they may resubmit the item with the changes. The agency must resubmit the item in near ready (text and graphics complete) to be produced format to ensure the discussed items were properly addressed before the approval/disapproval decision can be made.

If you have questions about the material review process or are interested in the entire list of approved materials, please email or call Frank E. Hayes at 360 236-3486.

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Washington State Department of Health
HIV Prevention & Education Services
P.O. Box 47840
Olympia, Washington, 98504-7840

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Documents posted in .pdf version on the Department of Health Web site will be made available in an alternative format on request to users who are unable to download or view .pdf files on the Web. To request an alternative format, contact: Beth Watkins.

Last Update: 08/06/2008