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.