Monday, July 20, 1998
California cuts HIV programs, passing problems to managed care
CONFERENCE: Funding, state policy discussed in HIV forum at UCLA
By Matt Grace
Daily Bruin Contributor
For the first time in the Los Angeles area, HIV researchers, social service and healthcare providers were brought together at UCLA to discuss the impact of HIV therapies on clinical care, social policy and funding.
The state of California recently cut funding to community-based organizations, forcing HIV-infected and at-risk individuals to seek treatment and counseling elsewhere in their communities.
Without state funds, community-based organizations will fold and managed care will get new, unique challenges, said Mary Jane Rotheram-Borus, director of the Center for HIV Identification Prevention and Treatment Services (CHIPTS).
"All these low-income, disenfranchised minorities are going to need care," Rotheram-Borus said.
Currently, the most successful therapy involves a cocktail of three or more drugs that must be taken every day to fight the HIV virus. The treatment, however, is expensive and difficult to follow clinically, which makes it more inaccessible to the minority and low income population.
"The epidemic is spreading into marginalized communities that we, as a society, have not cared for," said Joseph O'Neill, director of Health Resources and Services Administration, an organization with $1.3 billion budget to fight AIDS.
"All choices are not possible," he explained. "Priorities must be established."
The forum brought together clinical researchers, policy-makers and community activists.
"The academy and the community really need each other to help HIV," said Lee Klosinski, director of education with the AIDS Project Los Angeles. He explained how academic researchers and the community can help each other to manage HIV.
"There have been (many) attempts at bridge-building in the past that have not always succeeded," he said. The conference, however, "got people to talk and listen," he said.
"Part of the importance (of the conference) is the variety of different communities," said Dr. Eric Bing, co-director of CHIPTS.
"If we are going to make major headway, it means having a plan that encompasses all these perspectives."
Octavio Vallejo, chair of the CHIPTS Conference Planning Committee, said the conference allowed him to share his personal knowledge of what it is like to live with AIDS.
"I'm a person living with AIDS, and I'm a very open and proud gay physician working shoulder-to-shoulder with people who really need my knowledge," Vallejo said.
"We are here to learn from each other," he continued.
HIV treatment and counseling centers exist all across the country. However, few bring together community organizations and academic institutions.
"This is the first one that focuses on early identification, access to care and prevention as it relates to social policy," Bing said.
The showing of the community proves that the center is "more than just activism, more than just academics, more than just clinical care - it's the marriage of all this," Bing concluded.
BAHMAN FARAHDEL/Daily Bruin
Dr. David J. Martin from the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center talks about returning to work after contracting HIV.