Last night (July 26), some 100 AIDS healthcare providers and community members in San Francisco met to discuss recent budget cuts to the city’s HIV/AIDS funding—and to bat around plans for a new prevention model for a city where about 20,000 people are living with HIV.
“We’ve received a significant cut in CARE funds in this last round, and we expect more with the formula changing,” says Tracey Packer, interim director of HIV Prevention at the San Francisco Department of Public Health. “We think it’s important to rethink and improve what we’re doing …in terms of prevention, as well as taking care of people with HIV.”
The two-hour meeting, organized by the San Francisco HIV Health Planning Work Group, was the first in a series of meetings, focus groups and surveys planned over the next few months. Attendees discussed topics such as HIV in older adults and the myriad non-HIV-related health issues that positive people in urban areas must face.
The group hopes to finalize recommendations to present to policy makers by the end of the year.
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.
Woman of the Month is supported by exclusive advertising from Gilead.
Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I recently met a guy who is negative. I did tell him about my status and he decided to kiss me anyway (we didn't go further than that). But a day later, he called and said that he actually had a mouth ulcer that time when we kissed and he was very worried. Asked if he can get the virus from me that way. For that moment, I felt so insulted and yet I felt so bad. It was my first time having a contact with a "negative" guy."
