Client Services Expands

Last Updated on Wednesday, 04 August 2010 20:48 Written by HIV Alliance News Tuesday, 20 July 2010 22:00

Client Services Grow at HIV Alliance

You may know that we provide support services to individuals living with HIV/AIDS, but what does that mean? Client Services helps people living with HIV/AIDS to stabilize and maintain their health through support, advocacy, referral services, and emergency financial assistance.  We recognize that physical health is dependent upon emotional, social, and spiritual well-being. Many of our clients struggle to meet basic needs like housing, food, electricity, and medication.  As a result, we offer holistic care to meet these needs.

It is not just basic services that make the difference. We hold a weekly social group for our clients, offer nutrition classes, organize family and friend support groups, and put together an annual holiday party, complete with dinner and presents for our clients and their families. We have even found volunteers to dog sit when a client was ill and unable to be at home.

Our services spoke for themselves, and the State of Oregon took notice. They have asked us to rapidly expand our support services. In addition to serving Lane, Coos, Josephine and Curry Counties, we have now added Marion and Klamath Counties as of July 1, 2010.  The number of people living with HIV in Marion County alone could more than double our caseload over the next year or two!

This growth does not come without challenges however. An increase in client base also means an increase in client diversity as well as an increase in our staff. “Clients in rural Oregon sometimes face harsher realities, such as stigma and discrimination, lack of social services, and great distances to see medical providers. A large number of Marion County clients are Spanish-speaking. In order to accommodate, we have added to our bilingual staff, including hiring a bilingual receptionist,” says Renee Yandel, HIV Alliance Program Director. HIV Alliance is also faced with outgrowing our current office location and exploring options to remedy that.

Our work in Marion County has started with initial client enrollment. In addition, our Care Coordinators have been available to aid clients with current emergencies, including crises like eviction and inability to obtain medications.  Over the next several weeks we will complete enrollment for Marion County clients, including a psycho-social screening with each client.

We were notified just a few weeks ago that the Klamath County Public Health Department was losing its HIV Case Manager.  They were considering opting out of the Ryan White contract, meaning there would be no case management for people living with HIV in that county.  Since, they have officially opted out of the contract, leaving 17 individuals without access to services.  HIV Alliance was then approached by the state to assist these individuals through the Care Coordination pilot. Currently, we are in initial stages of contact with the clients. Klamath County clients will primarily receive services telephonically.  Clients who have a medical emergency will be visited by the Josephine County nurse, Brenda Keith, every other month.

County expansion also means learning a new set of ropes. While the regions are very similar in some ways, how medical assistance is implemented varies. Our staff has been responsible for learning new systems in each county, including how OHP and Mental Health services are offered. Also, each county has different and sometimes no programming in practice for basic needs such as housing, transportation, and food.

If the state continues to face difficulties offering services to other counties in Oregon and the Care Coordination Pilot proves to be successful, there is potential for HIV Alliance to continue to grow. The state asks HIV Alliance to take over programming, instead of keeping it within their Public Health sector, because we are able to offer greater personal programming. Without private funding, we would not be able to offer these extra services. Your gift stays within our community so we can plan summer barbeques and museum visits for our clients. As we grow, we will continue to broaden our base of supporters in order to offer these personal services to our clients in those counties. We look forward to future expansion and build relationships with the hundreds of new clients coming into our care this year.

Want to know more about our Client Services?  Click here!

Are you from a county outside of Lane County and would like to help?  Contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , Development Coordinator, for more information.