An adult health care program at a clinic in Freeport, NY, which provided medical and nonmedical services to people living with HIV/AIDS, will close at the end of January, reports Newsday (newsday.com, 12/11).
The program, run by the Catholic Charities, has been providing residents with HIV-related services for 12 years. In recent years, the adult program has seen a reduction in clients because recent improvements in HIV medical treatment led many patients to seek treatment and care from the clinic less often, according to Paul Engelhart, the program officer for Catholic Charities. The program was designed to serve about 50 people per day; in recent months, it has seen an average of 28 people a day.
According to Engelhart, closing the program will allow Catholic Charities to put more emphasis on counseling and finding affordable housing for people living with HIV/AIDS. “Closing the day-treatment program will allow the agency to increase its commitment to meeting needs in these areas,” he said.
However, some clients of the facility are disappointed at the closing and say they will miss the services and resources provided by the program, according to the Newsday report. “I’m afraid some of the people who go there will have a relapse, particularly those with addictions,” said one client. “This was the only place they had to go.”
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Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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