About Us

Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS aims to meet rising need for low-income support services

08/12/2008

OP-ED: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

August 14, 2008

CONTACT: Carol A. Poore

President and CEO

Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS

(602) 307-5330, Ext. 2213

cpoore@swhiv.org

HIV/AIDS in the Valley: Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS aims to meet rising need for low-income support services during tough economy

By Carol A. Poore

President and CEO of Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS

Last week the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing that the number of AIDS infections in the United States has been underestimated by 40 percent every year for more than a decade. The CDC's research cites 56,300 new infections annually - not 40,000 assumed for many years.

This is not surprising news to workers at Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS, Arizona's oldest and largest nonprofit AIDS service organization providing a unique combination of prevention, research and wellness services. For nearly 20 years, the agency has been on the front lines addressing a steady increase in the demand for HIV/AIDS testing and counseling, prevention education, clinical trial and support resources for men, women and teens impacted by the disease.

We are here to serve 70 percent of Arizona's nearly 13,000 residents infected with HIV/AIDS who live in the metro-Phoenix area. We also are a ready prevention, education, research, and wellness resource center for approximately 4,300 people, the majority who live here in the Valley, who are HIV-positive and are yet undiagnosed.

As our Valley continues to grow, unfortunately the cases of HIV/AIDS will grow as well. So far in 2008, our HIV testing program has grown by 26.9 percent over 2007 data.

We will see more people who need both the core primary care services, as well as support services with the passage of Arizona Senate Bill 1113. Thanks to this bill, HIV testing now will be a part of routine clinical care in hospitals, community clinics and primary care settings unless the patient chooses to opt out. Consistent with CDC recommendations, this bill will help more people become aware of their HIV/AIDS status and get into primary care. But as more people know their status, the demand for HIV/AIDS support services will rise, too.

HIV/AIDS is both chronic and cumulative. As people are living longer with the disease, new cases are continuously added. Half of all new HIV infections in the United States occur among youth under 25 years of age and every hour, two people between the ages of 13 and 24 are infected. Black Americans, Latinos and Native Americans are disproportionately at risk for HIV, as are youth and women of color. Although only 12 percent of the U.S. population, Blacks comprise 51 percent of new infections reported since 2001 and AIDS is the leading cause of death for Black women age 25-34 according to the CDC.

The Valley's HIV/AIDS data follows national trends. The Southwest Center is a vital resource center - a lifeline - for the Valley's residents who are impacted by HIV/AIDS, most of whom are below the federal poverty line.

As a resource center, Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS is sharpening its focus on how to fund and deliver a growing need for comprehensive services that support and complement core primary care. For example, our educational programs provided by registered dietitians and licensed behavioral health counselors foster healthy lifestyles and help people take personal responsibility for managing their disease. Our clinical trials program offers hope for patients who are referred by their doctor because they meet the requirements of the clinical trial and can access new leading-edge medications to fight HIV/AIDS.

We are helping people help themselves and get into care sooner after becoming aware that they are infected. We also exist to help people who are HIV-negative stay HIV-negative. Southwest Center helps Arizona save millions of dollars in medical costs that currently go to acute emergency medical treatment.

Bottom line, we believe that self sufficiency and autonomy are critical for clients at Southwest Center because this leads to treatment adherence and general well-being.

Without the Center's private fundraising to support indigent needs, our 1,200 low-income clients and thousands more HIV-positive people would not have access to our licensed counselors, registered dieticians, naturopathic services, clinical trials and education - services that help them stay on track and out of hospitals.

In recent years Southwest Center has lost more than $500,000 in federal support that once funded our support services. The Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act, first passed in 1990, is the single largest federal program specifically designed to help people living with HIV and AIDS. After Medicaid and Medicare, it is the third largest source of federal funds to support the medical and care needs of half a million of the lowest-income Americans living with HIV/AIDS.

Under the current administration, the program has remained essentially flat funded and support services have been dramatically impacted at the local level, causing nonprofits such as the Southwest Center to either scramble to raise the money privately to continue support services, or drop the services altogether. Abrupt transition away from funding HIV/AIDS support services has imposed sudden and painful gaps in the Southwest Center's ability to underwrite nutritional products and certain support services and has placed a tremendous financial burden on our agency.

To make up the difference in 2007, the Southwest Center raised more than $1.3 million in private funds to serve our clients - a third of our operating budget. This year, with the rising demand for support services and the current economic downturn, the Southwest Center will depend upon even more private donations to keep up with the growing needs of the Valley's population impacted by HIV/AIDS.

Like many nonprofits, the Southwest Center is in the process of creating a model of sustainability that assumes shrinking federal government funds. We must realistically face the fact that the agency cannot provide some of the much-needed support services for free anymore. This is a difficult reality. It requires our clients to shoulder more of their own costs, which is devastating when so many of our clients can barely afford transportation to keep their appointments at the Southwest Center.

As a nonprofit serving the poorest of the poor in Arizona, we, at the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS, will continue to rigorously fight for social justice and public funding. The CDC's numbers clearly prove that HIV/AIDS is a larger problem than originally thought. In fact, one international Red Cross official believes that the message of HIV as a "manageable disease" has deceived our youth and that we will soon see another burst in the epidemic. We will continue to find ways to provide the most critical and affordable support services that complement primary care. And, we will continue to seek private funds to support what the government will not fund.

We ask for your help.

Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS is seeking personal, corporate and foundation contributions to sustain services and continue educating Arizonans on preventing the spread of this disease. In addition, our agency has launched a new web-based vitamin underwriting program to help those who cannot afford to purchase nutritional products that help people living with HIV/AIDS live strong and well. Go to www.swvitamins.com and click on the gift certificate option. The recipient will be "Southwest Center Low Income Vitamin Program." Select the amount of donation and e-mail the gift certificate to hlukefahr@swhiv.org. You will receive a receipt thanking you for your charitable contribution.

You also can purchase the Southwest Center's online vitamins which are the highest grade, purest quality of nutriceutical vitamin products available anywhere in the world, delivered to your home. A large part of the proceeds directly supports programs and services the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS.

Finally, we invite you to visit the Southwest Center and see firsthand the agency's important work. You can call 602-307-5330, Ext. 2221 and arrange a tour. Thank you for your invaluable generosity, friendship and support as the Southwest Center pushes forward to fight HIV/AIDS.

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Carol A. Poore serves as President and CEO of Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS.

About the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS

Phoenix-based Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS is the Valley's oldest and largest AIDS service organization. Southwest Center is the only HIV/AIDS service organization in the United States that combines research, prevention/education and wellness services under one roof. The agency is a leading HIV/AIDS research and resource center, and currently serves more than 1,200 clients infected by HIV/AIDS while providing outreach to more than 25,000 at-risk men, women and youth annually. The Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS' history of partnership with pharmaceutical companies for clinical trial research has helped bring 26 of 28 FDA approved drugs to the market to treat this destructive disease. Visit the Web site www.swhiv.org for more information or call 602-307-5330.

Funding at the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS

A 501(c)(3), nonprofit organization, several programs at the Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS are funded in whole or part by the Federal Department of Health and Human Services, Health Resources and Services Administration, the Ryan White Comprehensive HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006, Maricopa County Department of General Government, Arizona Department of Health Services and other state municipalities. Other major funding sources include (but are not limited to) Valley of the Sun United Way, private foundations and donors, and agency fundraising events.