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Your contributions at work

MAY 2014 Housing is an essential therapy for people living with HIV “From the time they come in and say ‘I’m homeless,’ to the time they say, ‘I got the apartment!’ it’s so great,” beams Nichelle Austin, Housing Case Manager for Desert AIDS Project. “You see them a month later and they look so different because they’re able to say ‘I’ve got a house. I can sleep tonight.’ ” Nichelle knows that providing housing is essential therapy for people living with HIV and AIDS, who are facing homelessness or already living on the streets. She’s seen it work many times. So has Housing Coordinator Monica Aitchison.

“When a client gets housing and can sustain it, his health improves,” Monica observes. “At first, his health is fragile. Then he gets better. He’s not so isolated. He’s more approachable. You can see the difference.”

That’s why D.A.P. includes 81 studio and one-bedroom apartments at the Vista Sunrise complex in the compassionate, comprehensive care package available to clients. Located next to our campus at Vista Chino and Sunrise Avenue, Vista Sunrise is just one of several ways we support clients in need of housing.

Follow the winding path through Vista Sunrise and you’ll see a cluster of two-story buildings with Spanish stucco facades in the hues of a Mojave sunset. The apartments are unfurnished and airy at about 352 square feet for studios and 534 for one bedrooms. There is a full kitchen and bath in each unit with outdoor patios. And the grounds include a dog park and a pool. Residents can decorate their patio areas to suit their own tastes just as they do inside their homes.

Gina Hooten, Vista Sunrise’s property manager, points out that potential residents must be diagnosed with HIV or AIDS. Applicants also have to undergo credit and criminal background checks. They must have a source of income, usually Social Security. Rent is based on a sliding scale of 30%-60%-of-income. This gets them into a space whose market value ranges from $650 to $700 a month for studios and $700 to $800 a month for a one-bedroom.

Our housing specialists say the need is growing. Your donations and support mean a world of difference for someone who doesn’t know where they’ll be sleeping tonight.

When you donate, volunteer, or help fundraise, you make sure there’s one less person on the streets.

Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

Reaching youth at local schools for HIV Awareness One in four new HIV infections in the US is among youth ages 13-24, and each month, another 1,000 young people contract HIV. That’s why every year for the past three years, National Youth HIV & AIDS Awareness Day (NYHAAD) has been held on April 10.

Since HIV prevention and education funds were decimated in the State of California back in 2009, our education team has remained dedicated to reaching teens and young adults with the message about HIV risk… but this year, we’ve made it a goal of ours to reach more kids with information they likely aren’t getting anywhere else.

But you might expect a group of eighth graders to break out in embarrassed laughter and horseplay at the mere mention of such words as penis, oral sex and vaginal secretions.

Earlier this month though, students at Raymond Cree Middle School did no such thing. When our Community Educator Steven Michael Chacon explained HIV and AIDS, how it spread and ways to prevent it, students didn’t giggle or get embarrassed. Instead they listened closely. They responded correctly when Michael quizzed them. And they asked thoughtful questions during and after his presentation.

Michael, a retired teacher, said he purposely uses mature vocabulary in his talks with kids. “I empower them with just enough information” to make proper choices about sex, drug use or other risky behaviors, he said.

“If you approach it as a matter of fact, you don’t allow it to get to that point” where students goof off. (cont. on next page)

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org Michael gave his talk, titled “HIV 101,” as part of NYHAAD and the prevention work our other volunteers and paid staff are doing this year at local schools including Palm Springs, Palm Desert, La Quinta, Cathedral City, Yucca Valley, Moreno Valley High Schools and Nellie Coffman Middle School.

Michael spoke with students at Raymond Cree’s New Directions Day Treatment Program, an extended school day program for youngsters with emotional challenges. New Directions spends four hours on academics and four hours on mental health services, social skills and life skills. “We added sex education to life skills because it’s important for this population to be aware,” said the school’s Rehabilitation Specialist, Yanira Regla.

Michael engaged students by first quizzing them on HIV and AIDS. As a testament to how great the need is for prevention education, the eight youngsters in the class knew very few answers. Then he lectured, explaining basics about HIV, like how the disease circulates in four bodily fluids and how it can only be transmitted through sex, breast feeding and sharing drug paraphernalia such as needles.

He rubbed his hands together vigorously to demonstrate how friction makes skin so tender it can tear so having sex “in the front or in the back” can “open the door” to HIV and ultimately AIDS. Students’ hands shot up and peppered Michael with questions about more specifics.

When Michael revisited the quiz that began his lecture, students knew all the answers.

“Where can you get tested?” he asked.

“Hospitals, Revivals, D.A.P.,” students answered.

“How old do you have to be to get tested?”

“Thirteen,” they shouted in response.

Teacher Jamie Dunn was pleased at how attentive her students were, saying she was a little surprised there was no laughter or disruptions.

Michael said he wasn’t stunned because he could tell they were listening.

“I was checking for understanding,” Michael said, “and they were getting it.”

Education and prevention classes like HIV 101 are some of the best tools we have in stopping the disease from spreading. Our Education Department and educators like Michael give these classes all year long throughout the Coachella Valley and Hi-Desert region. If you or someone you know would like to get HIV 101 in your child’s class, call us at 760-323-2118.

Your first glimpse into our Behavioral Health Department It’s 1986. You are 19 … or 23 … maybe 30, and you’re told to get your affairs in order because you’ve only got a few months to live. Friends and loved ones are dying all around you. Memorial services are a weekly event. The obituary pages stretch on and on. You are scared to death. You can’t tell your family.

But no one is supposed to die this young.

Somehow, you survive. Through years of sickness, loss and despair, waiting for the next infection – expecting that proverbial “next shoe to drop” – you hope for some treatment or cure. Ten years pass, and finally effective medications are available. There are lots of side-effects … but FINALLY something works.

Too bad Joe or Jim couldn’t have hung on just six more months.

This is part of the back-story for many of the patients Dr. David Hersh, psychiatrist and Director of Clinical Programs for Desert AIDS Project, sees every day. “Most of my patients are true survivors. They lived through a hellish time, and managed to hold it together. Most didn’t expect to live into their 30 s, let alone their 40 s or 50 s,” Dr. Hersh says. “Now, here they are in 2014, grappling with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and other mental health issues. My patients typically aren’t dying from HIV anymore, but issues of stigma, isolation, loneliness, financial woes, medical problems, and an unclear path forward impact many.”

Dr. Hersh and D.A.P. utilize an integrated, holistic approach to help patients cope with, and work through these issues. As a psychiatrist, Hersh heads the Behavioral Health Team, leading a psychiatric nurse practitioner, a therapist and a substance-use counselor. Each of these team members works closely with D.A.P.’s medical, case-management, housing, social services and home-healthcare providers to deliver an individualized, comprehensive care plan for each D.A.P. client. Having these services, as well as a thriving dental clinic, under a single roof, makes obtaining coordinated care much simpler for D.A.P clients. In addition, the D.A.P. Community Center – located within the D.A.P facility at 1695 N. Sunrise Way in Palm Springs – further supports client wellness through activities such as acupuncture, yoga, workforce re-entry and educational programs, as well as therapy, support and socialization groups.

Dr. Hersh’s office is located within the medical clinic, where he and Medical Director Dr. Steven Scheibel, take a team approach to patient care. They agree that medical and mental health issues are often intertwined, needing to be addressed in a coordinated way to best help their patients better care for themselves. “Can we really expect a severely depressed patient to take their HIV meds regularly, or someone’s mood to improve if their diabetes is out of control or they are experiencing chronic pain?” Hersh asks. “It’s not 1986 anymore, but what happened then, and what is happening today, impacts our client’s lives and quality of life in complex ways that can be best addressed with an approach that focuses on the entire person.”

Your contributions at work

JUNE 2014 Get Tested “Roadshow” Marks National HIV Testing Day June 27 Get Tested Coachella Valley, the nation’s first region-wide HIV testing initiative, has plans to mark National HIV Testing Day by taking its mobile HIV testing clinic on a “roadshow” to the region’s three major hospitals – Desert Regional Medical Center, Eisenhower Medical Center, and John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital.

The Get Tested Roadshow will bring a local focus to the national awareness day by parking its mobile clinic at the three locales and offering free and confidential HIV testing to the general public and hospital staff.

The mobile clinic is scheduled to be at Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs from 8AM-11AM, at Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage from Noon-3PM, and at JFK Memorial Hospital from 4PM-7PM. All three of the hospitals are members of the campaign’s coalition of more than 50 Community Partners, led by Desert AIDS Project. Desert Regional Medical Center is Lead Sponsor of the campaign and has already begun to integrate routine HIV testing into its standard patient care beginning with its Emergency Department.

The mobile clinic will be staffed by the Get Tested team of HIV test counselors and Public Health Liaisons, wearing the campaign’s signature orange color. The sides of the mobile clinic feature full-color images of Coachella Valley community members, making the clinic resemble a rolling billboard as it cruises through the Valley.

Involving community partners and local leaders – and featuring them in campaign communications – is a key aspect of the Get Tested strategy. “We’ve learned that if we want people to take action, we have to make our message immediate and personally compelling by showing local people that our neighbors may even recognize. We want everyone to know, at a glance, that this campaign is about us, about OUR community,” says Susan Unger, Get Tested Coachella Valley Project Director. All campaign materials are produced in both English and Spanish.

The Get Tested Coachella Valley Roadshow will help spread the word that HIV can end if everyone gets tested and if those who are currently unaware they are HIV-positive get proper medication. One day a year, that’s the message of National HIV Testing Day. That’s the message that Get Tested Coachella Valley speaks every day.

Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

Fighting HIV stigma, one testimonial at a time

A new advertising campaign encourages Coachella Valley residents living with HIV or AIDS to take charge of their challenges and get on the path to a stronger and happier life, with help from Desert AIDS Project. The campaign, called the Client Empowerment Ad Series, features proud clients – showing their faces and using their names – while talking about the services they receive at D.A.P. With 10 ads created so far, D.A.P. clients are just beginning to shine a spotlight on the breadth and depth of programs and services available – all under one roof at Desert AIDS Project.

In one ad, Chuck talks about how yoga and meditation kept him strong when his T-cell count dropped to three; in another ad, Miguel tells how acupuncture helps alleviate his pain. In yet another, a beaming Kathy tells us why “food is medicine” as she picks up free, fresh fruits and vegetables from our monthly Farmers Market. Needlecraft activities – like quilting and embroidery – that ease hand tremors and neuropathy for clients are showcased in an ad for Pinkie’s Monday Sewing Group, including Hugh, Bill, Rick, and Pinkie himself – also known as Larry.

The smiling faces of Chuck, Miguel, Kathy, Larry and many others tell the stories of D.A.P. clients who haven’t bowed to the various stigmas that still surround HIV or AIDS for some. Instead, these “proud and out loud” clients have each spoken openly about their HIV status and how the care they get at D.A.P. is enriching, energizing, and empowering their lives. (cont. on next page)

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org Barry Dayton, D.A.P. Director of Marketing & Communications, explained that “We are encouraging our clients to be their own best advocates of their health care while taking advantage of the amazing variety of programs and services we have in this single location, here at D.A.P.” Whether clients need to see a dentist, fill prescriptions for life-saving HIV medications, or just find a little camaraderie through a variety of activities and support groups, they can get it … and more … at D.A.P. And if a client, like Ross, lives in the Vista Sunrise apartment community on D.A.P.’s campus, all he or she has to do is walk across the parking lot. No wonder we have become a national model for holistic-care-doneright.

These “client empowerment ads” run locally in LGBT publications like Desert Outlook, LIVE Magazine, and The Standard, as well as in national print and digital titles like Compete Magazine, an LGBT sports focused publication, and A&U: America’s AIDS Magazine. The ads have also appeared in greater Coachella Valley general interest publications, like The Desert Sun, Desert Health News, and Desert Charities News. Tens of thousands of potential clients, donors, volunteers, and others will be exposed to the empowerment ads, here and across the country, during their run.

Hopefully, those reading the ads will come to see people living with HIV and AIDS as friends, family, and neighbors. It’s time to set aside the harsh labels that some put on the HIV-affected … and simply treat them as anyone else dealing with a chronic disease. D.A.P. is proud of its clients who have found their medical home here with us and we love hearing how they’re making the most of all we have to offer.

Visit the “Staying Current” section at www.desertaidsproject.org to view all ten ads.

Get Tested Coachella Valley Gets Hot At Coolest Parties The Get Tested Coachella Valley campaign kicked into high-gear when it recently moved into Palm Springs’ international gay party scene. The Get Tested team both educated about and tested for HIV without disturbing the fun at both the world-famous, 25-year-old White Party and the lesser-known, but very popular, Blatino Oasis.

“Party promoters, in the past, had been skeptical about letting Desert AIDS Project test for HIV at their events, worried that the presence could harsh an otherwise mellow weekend,” said Ralph Gonzalez, D.A.P.’s newly promoted Manager of Prevention, Intervention & Education. “People might not want to test while they’re in party mode.”

Both White Party and Blatino Oasis attract gay and bisexual men from the U.S. and abroad to concerts, fireworks and pool parties here in Palm Springs and Cathedral City. The White Party, held the weekend of April 25, brought an estimated 10,000 revelers. Blatino Oasis, a celebration for gay men of color, held May 2 – 4, drew about 1,000 attendees. For both events, the campaign worked closely with promoters to make its presence fit seamlessly into the flow of the weekend.

During White Party weekend, the Get Tested campaign placed its mobile testing clinic on Arenas Road, where many gay bars are located. At the main White Party event, held Saturday night at the Palm Springs Convention Center, the Get Tested van and inviting outdoor lounge were set-up directly beside the main entrance – an historic first. Test counselors provided free and confidential HIV rapid testing. For any individuals receiving a preliminary positive test result, the counselors were on-hand to provide immediate guidance and to ensure linkage to confirmatory testing and appropriate care, if needed.

The Get Tested campaign had an even higher profile the following weekend as a Presenting Sponsor of Blatino Oasis. The mobile testing clinic, outdoor lounge, and eye-catching male models decked out in campaign-color orange “Get Tested” Speedos drew event-goers to learn more about the campaign and to get tested.

As part of its Presenting Sponsorship and partnership with Blatino Oasis founder and promoter, Joe Hawkins, the Get Tested campaign offered a free ticket to the Saturday night concert featuring the hot hip-hop headliner, Trina.

Tickets ordinarily sold for $25 in advance, $30 at the door. “People were coming up to us saying, ‘We get a free ticket if we get tested? Yeah!’ ” Ralph recalled. “We had lines of people getting tested.”

The levels of testing and education at both White Party and Blatino Oasis exceeded expectations and drew praise from representatives of the CDC, the State Office of AIDS, and the event promoters – making it very clear that the Get Tested team did its work … without breaking the groove!

Enhancing our clients’ health with your support

D.A.P. and Desert Regional screen 115 for oral cancer For the second consecutive year, the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Desert Regional Medical Center joined in providing free screenings for oral, head, and neck cancer at the Annette Bloch Cancer Care Center at Desert AIDS Project on Friday, June 20.

As they waited to be examined, some watched videos about cancer screening and prevention, produced by the Oral Cancer Foundation, featuring celebrities and others diagnosed with oral cancer. Information on quitting smoking – the leading cause, along with alcohol use, of mouth and voice box cancers – and other cancer-related materials were also available.

Although walk-ins were accepted and no one was turned away, most people had called the toll-free appointment line in advance and were quickly seen by the medical and dental providers performing the examinations. “Many of the patients we screened were advised to have further follow-up with their primary care physician while others were referred for immediate consultation with a specialist, such as a dermatologist or an otolaryngologist … more commonly known as an ear, nose, and throat specialist,” said Dr. Steven Scheibel, medical director at Desert AIDS Project. “This oral cancer screening clinic was an excellent opportunity to focus on one specific area of concern that is often forgotten during regular doctor visits.”

Scheibel was joined by a nurse practitioner and two dentists from D.A.P., as well as two doctors from the Comprehensive Cancer Center at Desert Regional Medical Center, in performing the screenings. As patients left, they were given copies of the completed screening forms to review with their primary care doctors or indicated specialists. Also provided was “50 Facts about Oral, Head and Neck Cancer.”

“That fact sheet points out that about 50,000 people are diagnosed every year in the U.S. alone with oral, head, and neck cancers,” said Dr. Nicolas Batty, one of the screeners from Desert Regional’s Comprehensive Cancer Center. His colleague, Dr. Amir Lavaf, added “I feel Desert Regional and D.A.P. provided a real service to our community today and I was so pleased to see how well our two staffs and the volunteers kept the entire process running so smoothly. We look forward to doing it again next year.”

Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

Supplementing health care with non-traditional therapies For Ray Robertson, Community Center Manager for Desert AIDS Project, it’s all about tapping into the body’s ability to care for itself by using all programs available to aid that process.

Ray coordinates many activities D.A.P. sponsors, outside traditional medicine, that promote health and well-being. Along with cooking classes and emotional support groups, Ray assembled a menu of homeopathic and non-traditional therapies.

Among them are reiki, acupuncture, yoga, hypnotherapy, transformational breathing, flower essence and aromatherapy. Pet therapy and qigong, (pronounced chē‘gung), an ancient Chinese healing art that involves meditation, controlled breathing and exercises designed to improve physical and mental health while staving off disease, are coming soon.

Ray provides the evidence of this philosophy, saying non-traditional therapies have grown dramatically since he joined us three years ago. Prior to that, he served 20 years as program director of a residential substance abuse treatment center. With his leadership, we now offer a variety of mostly Eastern-inspired treatments and homeopathic remedies.

Alternative therapies seem to be popular with our clients because group and individual sessions generally are booked solid. “A lot of our clients believe in natural, homeopathic healing,” Ray explains. “They have to take lots of pills, so anything they can do that’s neither invasive nor dangerous they really are eager to try.”

(cont. on next page)

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org Acupuncturist Askat Ruzyev adds some of the many medications his clients take have heavy side effects. “Acupuncture treats side effects, it doesn’t add any,” Askat says.

Sometimes these remedies can dial down the depression and anxieties that living with HIV and AIDS can cause. Jeffrey McCall, who has weekly acupuncture treatments, is one such client. “I was depressed and had little energy,” Jeffrey says while Askat gently placed needles into Jeffrey’s left ear. “He knew what to do and how to treat it.”

Stanley Naeschen was waiting for his sixth session while Askat worked with Jeffrey. “It’s like recharging the battery on a car.” Stress and depression also get him down. Stanley says, “I’m not a needle person, but there’s no pain… and, in the end, it’s worth it. It’s brought me better sleep, even better dreams. I like the direction this is going.”

A heart-felt note of thanks from a D.A.P. client We know our donors like you are making a difference when clients tell us we’re doing a great job … like this email that Michael Muller, one of D.A.P.’s Medical Case Managers, received on June 24, 2014: Michael, haven’t written you in a while, but wanted to express my appreciation to you and D.A.P. for the good care and consideration I’ve received since I re-enrolled as a D.A.P. client.

Reiki master John Strobel relates that his clients say they get relief from stress when he softly places hands on and around them in order to “channel energy from the universe” and produce a meditative state. “Some people have an emotional release. Most people just find it relaxing. Someone once said it was as good as an eight-hour sleep.”

Besides offering a relief from depression, stress or insomnia, non-traditional therapies are yet another way to get clients up and out and active, which can have curative powers, Ray maintains.

“We need to be able to offer clients every opportunity to get out of the house and do something they believe will improve their health and well-being,” Ray believes. “If they’re coming here, then they’re not isolated. If their bodies are active, then their minds are active and that’s good stuff!”

When things were looking pretty bleak for me due to loss of my Social Security retirement and Medicare coverage, D.A.P. stepped in and helped me get affordable care until I could re-establish my coverage. I had excellent scheduled consultations with Dr. Hawthorne and had a recent urgent care visit with Dr. Scheibel. Also, once again the D.A.P. Dental clinic gave me a good evaluation and cleaning; it’s always nice working with them and I was glad I could qualify again for that service.

My Medicare is due to resume on July 1, and I’m very much looking forward to continuing with D.A.P. for my clinical needs, as well as the excellent social support groups that I’ve been attending for the last several months.

Thanks again to you personally, Michael, for clearing the way for a good outcome for me. I’ve very grateful.

Bill Spivey

Enhancing our clients’ health with your support

Primary care at D.A.P. often means treating cancer as well HIV patients diagnosed with cancer are two to four times more likely to have their cancer go untreated than patients without the virus, a recent study says.

Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute, who conducted the study, believe doctors treat cancer in HIV patients less aggressively because they’re not sure how cancer therapies will affect this special population.

Desert AIDS Project has been treating cancer along with HIV through the Annette Bloch Cancer Center since 2012. The center was established with a $1 million gift from Annette Bloch. She and her husband Richard, the R in H&R Block, both battled cancer.

“I felt this gift might extend the compassionate care I saw at D.A.P.,” she said at the time. As a member of 100 Women, the program dedicated to serving women and children affected by or at-risk of HIV/AIDS, Annette continues to be a friend of our cause.

Her generosity is essential because HIV and certain cancers go hand in hand. Some of those malignancies are so common they’re called “AIDS-defining conditions” and include Kaposi sarcoma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and cervical cancer. Lung cancer is an AIDS patients’ second most likely cause of death. Liver, oral and anal cancers also are common, unwelcome companions among our clients.

D.A.P.’s medical team recognizes the threat anal cancer can pose to a large segment of our community, so they perform anoscopies to catch it in its early stages. Nurse practitioners and providers use anoscopies to visually examine the canal for anal dysplasia. Pronounced dis-plā’-zuh, the condition affects sexually active gay men and is brought on by unprotected intercourse with a partner who has HPV, the human papillomavirus. HPV causes a clustering of abnormal cells, dysplasia, that forms lesions in the anal canal. The lesions, if left undetected and untreated, can lead to full-blown cancer. (cont. above ‣) Without the anoscopies and other cancer treatments offered Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

at D.A.P., our clients might be thrust into a medical community that doesn’t understand how to help them.

According the study, which appeared in Newsweek June 30, HIV patients generally have been excluded from clinical trials, so oncologists don’t know if the best available treatments are equally safe and effective for them.

“Many oncologists rely on guidelines based on such trials for treatment decision-making, and in the absence of guidance,” Dr. Gita Suneja, the study’s lead author, says, “they may elect not to treat HIV-infected cancer patients due to concerns about adverse side effects or poor survival.

The volunteer “Angel” among us Meet Margie Lobley. Margie, 70, has been a Desert AIDS Project volunteer for 17 years.

D.A.P. staffers dropped by to congratulate Margie when she was granted Angel status by the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, Inc., an international non-profit organization of gay men who promote joy, forgive guilt from stigmas and labels and honor community service. The local order has given $70,000 to groups such as D.A.P., the AIDS Assistance Program and Coachella Valley animal shelters. They have been very active in HIV testing and prevention.

The sisters choose Angels, who share their commitment to giving.

Margie, who has donated nearly 6,000 hours of service to our clients, was invited to join those ranks. The (cont. on next page)

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

ceremony was held July 16 in the Library at D.A. P. and presided over by her son, Sister Theresa Solution.

“We’re here today to honor Margie for 17 years of volunteer work at D.A.P.,” said her son, batting her 3-inch eyelashes dressed in nun’s habit and 6-inch heels. “My work as a sister has been inspired by your work as a volunteer.”

With Sister Theresa flanked by Sister Anne Thrax and Sister Teryn McCloseoff, the scene was deliberately light and comical though it recognized that community service was serious, heartwarming business.

“She inspires me,” Sister Theresa continued. “I love her commitment to D.A.P.’s female clients. I love her all-hugs policy.”

Margie began helping out here shortly after she and her family moved from Thousand Oaks to Big Bear in 1998. Sister Theresa is one of Margie’s seven children, a brood that includes five stepchildren and two of her own. Margie is a native of Rhode Island, who moved to Thousand Oaks in 1973. She now lives in Palm Desert.

“I just came back from a refresher course on my accent,” Margie said, with a New England brogue that sounds very Boston, just a little ‘softah.’

Margie explained how she used to drive to Palm Springs from Big Bear to do volunteer clerical work for D.A.P. Later, she decided to distribute food to those in need at our pantry.

One day, she came across some fabric and thought it would be excellent material for decorative pillows. The little project turned into 120 pillows that sold for $20 each and raised $1,500 to buy items to put inside holiday gift bags for our clients. During that process, Margie noticed that the bags were the only present some clients received for Christmas.

Sister Theresa described the pillow campaign to the crowd at Margie’s Angel ceremony, recounting how relentless she was in getting money and materials from family and friends to complete the project.

“It was my way of giving back,” Margie recalled. “It was my way of saying thanks to God for all the blessings he’s given me.”

Five Brand New Ways Our Clients Can Improve Their Health Online This summer, Desert AIDS Project is rolling out a new secure online patient portal for clients and patients. Months in the making, the number one goal of the portal is to provide a useful online tool for our clients, as part of new Affordable Care Act requirements.

To reach this goal, our new Health Information Management team has been hard at work finalizing implementation across the agency, so that all staff and departments are fully knowledgeable about the new technology.

HIV health center patients and all clients who have a case manager can use the patient portal to: 1. Ask a clinician a question: have a question about medications or your last visit? Ask your provider using the secure online form, as part of the patient portal.

2. Review and request lab results: get access to your most recent labs, instantly!

3. Request appointments: no time to call the health center for an appointment? Put in a request for your next health center visit, and get a confirmation just days afterwards.

4. View their personal health record: need to share your health record with a private physician? Just login, download, and forward your record to your doctor.

5. Ask a case manager a question: have a question about eligibility for other D.A.P. programs? Use the portal to ask your case manager, and get a response back in a day or two.

Plus, clients and patients will get secure email alerts so they’ll never miss another appointment.

The D.A.P. Patient Portal is live right now, so if you’re a client – or you know one – sign up with a staff member today!

Enhancing our clients’ health with your support

D.A.P. Aims To Find Answers, Improve Quality Of Life, With New Research Projects

Aging with HIV was once an impossible dream.

When the epidemic first appeared in 1981, those becoming ill most often heard doom-and-gloom prognoses.

Many were told to “get their affairs” in order because they couldn’t be expected to live long. Most doctors in those days were as confused by this new disease as their frightened patients. And the almost-complete lack of medication therapies in those days made progression to what we’ve come to know as full-blown AIDS far more likely than it is today.

The good news is that many of those who expected to live only months … or a couple of years … are now, thanks to advances in drug treatment and other therapies, living much longer with HIV or AIDS. But just how WELL are they aging? That’s what a new study aims to find out: Why are some people thriving, while others living with HIV seem to develop more co-infections – or co-morbidities – than others?

Along with the School of Medicine at University of California, San Diego (UCSD,) Desert AIDS Project is participating in a study, made available through a $3.4 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, to find some of the answers to this question and others like it.

“Since the advent of antiretroviral therapy to treat HIV, life expectancy of these adult patients has been increasing progressively,” a UCSD press release says. “By 2015, nearly half of individuals with HIV in the United States will be over age 50, and this number is expected to continue to rise. The newly funded study will be the first large-scale investigation of successful aging in those with HIV who are between the ages of 36 and 65 years.”

D.A.P. clients meeting the dual requirements of being 65 or older (cont. on back) while living with HIV have shown themselves eager to Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

“Sisters are doin’ it for themselves” That’s not just a song by HIV activist Annie Lennox. It’s what’s happening at D.A.P. through the Women’s Empowerment Group, facilitated

by Janine Bell, Substance Abuse Specialist.

“It’s not as easy for a lot of women to ‘come out’ as living with HIV, like gay men do,” says Janine. “Women still tend to be the family caregivers, who aren’t used to taking time for themselves, rather than hearth and home.” But Janine is encouraging D.A.P.’s female clients – about 8% of the total – to stick around after their medical or dental appointments or seeing their case manager and “engage” with themselves and with others who might be experiencing some of the same things as them.

Anyone who has seen the D.A.P. Client Community Center in action knows that it’s most often rocking with educational and social activities – all designed to encourage fellowship and tear down the walls of stigma, even if it’s self-stigma. As Janine sees it, “The whole idea of the Women’s Empowerment Group is to help women find the strength to reach their full potential and achieve their goals – whether that’s to return to school, mend relationships, or simply have a reason to get out of bed in the morning.”

Group members are encouraged to shout out their challenges, whether those are menopause, cancer, or the amount of medications they need to take. This is the start for many of these women to see themselves as valuable enough to write a Goals List in three parts: what’s been done … what’s being done … and what can be done … to have a better life.

One client, mired in unbearable guilt over the loss of a child, took the group’s encouragement to heart. She got her driver’s license and applied for financial aid, to attend College of the Desert where she’s planning to achieve a whole new set of goals.

“Girl Power” – at Desert AIDS Project, it’s a real thing.

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

participate in the “UCSD HIV and Aging Neuropsychological Study.” While we have dozens of clients who may quality for the study, funding limits the number to 20 participants. If this first trial is successful, the program could be expanded to include more participants.

Michelle Sims, a Medical Assistant on the D.A.P. client team that’s conducting a battery of tests as part of the study, says “Our portion of the study assesses the physical and cognitive functions of adults with HIV or AIDS.” Determining relative mental acuity among study participants might be as simple as asking clients to correctly fill out a make believe check.

Other tests are more complex, such as correctly recalling 12 words that Michelle reads aloud. In yet another assessment, clients begin by defining simple words like bed, tree, pencil, and house … but end by defining more “complex” words such as trellis, palette, protractor and abacus.

“This kind of research is what helps us and other AIDS service organizations to continue providing our clients with great primary and HIV-specialty care,” says Dr. Steven Scheibel, D.A.P. Medical Director.

“Our clients also recently participated in another, ongoing study to help advance the early detection of HPV-associated anal cancer, while reducing morbidity and mortality among high-risk MSM.” D.A.P. clients meeting the dual requirements of being 65 or older while living with HIV have shown themselves eager to participate in the “UCSD HIV and Aging Neuropsychological Study.”

While we have dozens of clients who may quality for the study, funding limits the number to 20 participants. If this first trial; is successful, the program could be expanded to include more participants.

Watch for more D.A.P. research updates soon …

Volunteer Connects D.A.P. Clients With Services For 12 Years Nick Procaccino was an academic and theater director living in Princeton, N.J., when the AIDS crisis hit in the 1980s. “I thought it affected other gay men, those living on the fringe, until my partner was diagnosed,” Nick says. His partner of 23 years, Michael Schnessel, passed away in 1992. “At that time, there was no cure. Doctors just told you how long you had to live.”

From that watershed moment on, AIDS became part of Nick’s life.

Upon retirement, he pledged to serve those facing this life-altering challenge. He became a volunteer at Desert AIDS Project in 2002. He is among D.A.P.’s corps of 550 volunteers working throughout the agency, and is in the top 20 in terms of hours donated.

Nick, who is 81 years old, has clocked about 5,100 hours of service to D.A.P., first as a sales clerk at the old Revivals on Perez Road in Cathedral City and then as a receptionist at our main campus at Vista Chino and Sunrise.

“I wanted something more challenging, interesting and different than being a sales person, so I asked to come here and do reception work,” Nick recalls.

You can see Nick behind the front desk greeting callers and visitors with a kind “Hello. This is Nick. May I help you?” He enjoys connecting clients with the proper service providers, making appointments for HIV testing or even calming them when they’re upset. “Mostly, I try to solve clients’ problems,” Nick says. “Sometimes, they want information and ask me questions I can’t answer. We can tell them general things such as, ‘Exposure shows up in eight weeks.’ But of course, we can’t give them medical information.

“I’ve had to deal with clients who are disgruntled about something.

When that happens, I have to remain calm enough to keep them on track and lead them to the D.A.P. staff member who can help them.”

Connecting clients with staff used to be easier when D.A.P. was smaller and Nick knew every staff member’s name and telephone extension by heart. Over the years, Nick has watched the operation grow from about 60 staffers to 139. Our services have expanded to include the dental clinic, a complete behavioral health department, an electronic medical records system and alternative therapies such as acupuncture and reiki meditation that are all designed to provide comprehensive and compassionate care to all D.A.P. clients.

This growth also means now Nick has to consult rosters with job titles and extensions to place callers and drop-ins with the proper service provider.

“But the interesting thing is, it’s always different,” Nick says. And that’s just the way he likes it.

Enhancing our clients’ health with your support

Coffee House Showcase a smashing success

The Coffee House Showcase recently opened with bag pipes, ballads, mosaics, burgers and a choir that seemed to come straight out of “Animal Farm.”

A total of 136 clients and quite a few staff members attended the show’s premiere making it a rousing success beyond anything its organizers imagined.

“Wow,” beamed Ray Robertson, Desert AIDS Project’s Community Center Manager. “It was big.”

The really big Coffee House Showcase is the newest on the list of activities designed to support and empower our clients.

Like quilting, yoga and computer classes, the showcase is designed to keep clients’ minds and bodies active while it combats their tendency to shut themselves in and isolate.

Simply put, Ray explained: “It gets people out and shows their creativity.”

And that’s just what it did, client Steven Trapp observed. “When you’re diagnosed with HIV or AIDS you kind of shy away from the world a little bit because of the stigma that’s attached to it. This show allowed clients to commune and share with others instead of hiding.”

Waves of them came to see the showcase when Ray was expecting about 60 people to attend. As clients arrived at D.A.P., they were greeted with burgers, homemade potato chips and chocolate chip cookies donated, grilled and served by Ruth’s Chris Steak House in Palm Desert.

The chef actually ran out of burgers, as the crowd grew larger and larger, so he went to a local market and bought more.

Ditties from the Highlands, played by on bag pipes by Rob Roy in (cont. on back) kilts, wafted over the crowd as they ate and mingled. Then Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

Free, confidential testing at Mecca health fair mark Latino HIV/AIDS awareness day It’s estimated that 1-in-50 Latinos will be diagnosed with HIV in their lifetimes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In 2010, Latinos made up about 16 percent of the U.S. population but accounted for 21 percent of new HIV infections nationally – a rate three times that of whites. With more than 220,000 Latinos in the U.S. living with HIV, Get Tested Coachella Valley is determined to begin stemming that tide.

On Oct. 15, “Get Tested” will be lead sponsor of the Mecca Family Resource Center, (FRC), Resource Fair, which falls this year on National Latino HIV/AIDS Awareness Day. The Get Tested mobile testing clinic will use this great venue to provide free and confidential testing for HIV among Latinos, who comprise 55 percent of the population of the Coachella Valley, according to the most recent U.S. Census.

The annual Resource Fair helps families – including those of our local farmworkers – to create healthy lifestyles and communities. The estimated 1,500 – 2,000 attendees at the Resource Fair will have an opportunity to connect to more than 100 local non-profit and public agencies that offer helpful and empowering health and wellness resources.

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

came a ballad that Angel Vasquez sang in Spanish. Jonathan and Kate Goldman pulled the audience members into their improv comedy skit by having them moo, cluck and bark in rhythmic timing.

Finally, artists David Julio, Don David Young and Miguel Criado, showed work in watercolor, acrylics, oils and mosaic tiles.

Each of them described the inspiration behind each piece as well as their artistic process.

Paul Josephson was truly impressed. “It was really good,” he said. “I should have gone up there but I was shy.”

Ray said Paul and other clients will get the opportunity to perform and share their creative product with the D.A.P. community at future Coffee House Showcases.

“I’ve got more artists and a couple of designers lined up for future showcases,” Ray said. “We’re going to bring back improv because it was so popular. And we’ve got some poets.”

The event clearly boosted clients’ selfesteem and morale, which Ray believes improves overall health and well-being, too.

So, of course there will be more of that to come, he said.

Catch snippets of the showcase premiere on Desert AIDS Project’s YouTube channel at youtube.com/desertaids.

Cat City Revivals Redux Over the years, the Revivals stores have certainly evolved … from a single corner of the office when D.A.P. was on Vella Road, to four stores today, in Palm Springs, Cathedral City, Palm Desert, and San Diego.

The Cathedral City store alone has had a variety of incarnations and addresses, going from “shabby chic” on Perez Road and Ramon Road … to the newly remodeled, “Wow – this is a RESALE shop?” at 68401 Highway 111.

Come in and check it out for yourself. The “Cat City” store was closed for about a month and opened again on Sept. 27 after getting a new floor, paint, and lighting. These are just a few of the tweaks that make the 17,000 square-foot-store look new again.

“Previously, the Cathedral City store just didn’t have that sparkle and pizzazz that the Palm Springs and Palm Desert stores have,” says Melanie Jones, coordinator of the approximate 180 volunteers working at the three Coachella Valley locations. “With this remodel, Cat City is up to those same standards. I’m thinking it’s going to really spike sales a lot.”

Most importantly, all this fresh razzle dazzle serves to enhance the Revivals mission of supporting D.A.P. as it helps individuals, families and communities, affected by HIV and AIDS, to live longer and stronger lives.

Revivals raises funds for the comprehensive, compassionate care we offer clients on our campus at Vista Chino and Sunrise Way where clients receive medical care, food, housing, medications, dental care, group and individual counseling, fellowship and much more right here under our roof.

The Revivals stores help D.A.P. by selling clothing, furniture, appliances, electronics, housewares, home fashions and such that are new, gently used donations, sold-on-consignment, or bought as complete estates. Each store is run by an army of volunteers, guided by just a few paid staff. Palm Desert has six staffers and 40 volunteers. Palm Springs has the most volunteers, with about 125, Melanie says. Cathedral City has seven staffers and 40 volunteers.

The Cathedral City Revivals store, just west of Cathedral Canyon Way, functions much like an anchor for neighboring shops in and around the plaza, attracting customers, who then check out retailers and restaurants nearby. Melanie added, “Our neighbors kept asking, ‘When will Revivals reopen? We’re dying out here.’ ”

Enhancing our clients’ health with your support

‘…They treat me like family’ When Teretha Whitmer recalls her first visit to Desert AIDS Project, her words are simple and heartfelt: “They saved my life,” she says. “They’ve been saving my life ever since.”

Teri, 59, of Palm Springs, was in crisis when she arrived at D.A.P. in 2005. Her home was unsafe. She was grieving the loss of her 16-year-old son, who’d died suddenly from heart disease. And Teri was so run down physically, her intake appointment turned into an emergency trip to Desert Regional Medical Center.

“I was wheezing so loud, my case manager called a nurse, who came over and took my vitals,” Teri recalls. “The next thing I knew, paramedics were here. They took me to Desert Regional where I spent the next 15 days.”

Upon release, her case manager arranged housing, furniture, utilities, food, transportation vouchers and more for D.A.P.’s new client.

Ever since then, the connection between Teri and D.A.P. has been long and strong. Our doctors have treated her HIV and then some. They diagnosed a torn rotator cuff she sustained after a fall about a month ago.

They adjusted the medications she’d received elsewhere for her asthma because it was causing harmful weight gain.

Teri takes full advantage of the wellness services we provide in Behavioral Health and our Community Center. She’s a fixture in the Women’s Empowerment Group with Janine Bell, the Talking Circle with Ben Brewer, and healthy cooking classes with Ray Robertson. The list continues with Bingo, yoga, Pizza and a Movie and Tea and HIV. “We turn British and we have tea,” she says. “It’s a positive time when we socialize and share things that uplift each other.”

Teri gives back to fellow clients she meets in groups and activities at D.A.P. with encouraging words, hugs and smiles. She knows that many of them feel lonely and defeated because their families deserted them over their disease, sexual orientation or both. Teri felt that sting years ago. When (cont. on back) Teri was first diagnosed, her sister had a get-together and Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

Medical Case Managers celebrate serving others When our ads, featuring client testimonials, claim “This and more… all under one roof,” they are referring to the dozen-plus programs and services we offer.

Perhaps the most crucial part of tying together all the essential parts of compassionate, comprehensive care offered at Desert AIDS Project is Medical Case Management.

“We coordinate medical care with social services for clients of D.A.P.,” says Lillian Sesma, our Medical Case Management Coordinator. “We link them to care. We make sure they have housing, food and everything they need to be healthy, to take their medications, see a doctor and survive.”

Medical Case Management is an important and growing field. Its practitioners celebrated National Case Management Week Oct. 12 through Oct. 18. According to the Bureau of Labor Statics, case management is one the fastest growing occupations in the nation. New team-based models for delivering health care such as the “patient-centered medical home” have hastened the drive to break down “silos of care” that for generations have defined fragmentation in health care and increased the potential for errors, says the Commission for Case Management Certification (CCMC.) “Professional case managers are uniquely qualified to help close those gaps in care and work collaboratively to advocate, communicate and manage resources for higher quality, costeffective care,” the CCMC says.

D.A.P. is ahead of the national curve on this, because we have (cont. on back)

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

Teretha cont. told her she couldn’t come unless guests were notified of her status and agreed to let her in.

Though shocked by the news, no one had a problem having her around.

But the incident made Teri sensitive to fellow clients with even more hurtful experiences.

“I discovered that so many people have been shunned,” she says. “Their families disowned them. When I first opened up to my family, there were mixed feelings. But now, I’m with people who don’t even know my last name, yet they treat me like family.”

Medical Case Managers cont. been breaking down silos of care for some time now, according to Dr. David Hersh, our Director of Clinical Services.

And Lillian feels that connecting clients with services is much easier when those services — lab work, dentistry, prescriptions, mental health counseling and much more — can be found under one roof.

We have eight Medical Case Managers. But the field is so diverse that there actually are seven more workers in various departments at D.A.P. doing similar work. Housing Coordinator, Early Intervention Specialist, and Benefits Eligibility Navigator are among those who connect clients with the services they need to get healthy and have some peace of mind. For example, someone may walk in to see Monica Aitchison and Nichelle Austin because they are HIV positive and homeless. Nichelle and Monica not only may help them get into Vista Sunrise apartments on our campus or elsewhere, but find food and other services as well.

“If they just have medical care and nothing else, they tend to fall out of care more often,” Lillian tells us. “If they have mental health issues they often lose track of their medications. We keep them stable so they keep going to their appointments and continue taking their medications.”

That’s the reward case managers throughout our organization receive from their work.

“All case managers here love what they do and they’re passionate about D.A.P.,” Lillian says.

Everyday Heroes whose worth is beyond measure Sometimes a volunteer collects enough food to feed 250 people in need during the holidays.

Other times, it’s someone who performs an essential task totally free of charge. Still others offer their professional expertise for a fundraiser, then fill the room with their colleagues, friends and family.

Volunteers like these help Desert AIDS Project go. There are about 500 of these average Joes and Janes under our roof. Their worth is nearly impossible to measure, so, clearly, we couldn’t function without them. That’s why we’ve created Everyday Heroes, an inaugural event to be held Dec. 1, World AIDS Day. “World AIDS Day is a day many of us take time to remember those lost and call us all to action moving forward,” says Darrell Tucci, our Chief Development Officer.

“Everyday Heroes is meant to remember and honor the everyday person going to extraordinary lengths to support those living with HIV and to bring an end to the epidemic.”

The evening of Champagne toasts, awards and entertainment, starts at 5:30 p.m. at Camelot Theatres on Baristo Road in Palm Springs. We’ll commend five volunteers for the time and expertise they devote to support staff and service clients of D.A.P. “We’ll be honoring people, who may not be wealthy, but what they contribute to us in terms of their time and energy is priceless and must be celebrated,” Darrell explains.

We’ll begin our Everyday Heroes tradition by applauding Linda Sue Rosefsky, Kandy Lee, Brian Vatcher, Mark Jones and Sean Strub.

Linda Sue Rosefsky, of Palm Springs, has volunteered to do HIV testing and counseling for 20 years. Linda Sue’s philosophy: “People should react to someone with HIV the same way they’d react to a person with pneumonia, measles, chicken pox or any other disability,” she says.

Kandy Lee, also of Palm Springs, conducts an annual food drive during Pride weekend that generates enough food to keep the shelves of D.A.P.’s Food Depot for clients in need fully stocked for the holidays. Kandy believes: “A hero is someone, who inspires me, who lives every day with a happy, loving, giving heart.”

Mark Jones and Brian Vatcher are public relations and marketing professionals with Brighthaus Marketing in Palm Springs. They help D.A.P. behind the scenes “quietly leveraging their network to sell tickets to our events,” Darrell says.

They promote ongoing HIV testing and co-produced a D.A.P. fundraiser called “Sparkle.”

According to Mark: “A hero is just someone, who gives of themselves freely despite their personal challenges. They look past their adversities and they help others.”

Brian Vatcher’s roots in volunteerism are deep: “For me, it goes back to my Hawaiian training and the idea of Laulima, the interconnected hands. And so two hands together can lift up people.”

Sean Strub, of Milford, Pa., has been living with HIV for more than 30 years. The writer and activist is the founder of POZ Magazine, which promotes health and a full life for those living with HIV, fights tirelessly to end the stigma of HIV, advocate for the LGBT community, and promote corporate social responsibility among many other progressive causes.

“I don’t know how to lead my life differently… It’s how I make meaning of my own life and give it purpose,” Sean says. “I don’t feel heroic. I feel like I’m doing what every human being should be doing in whatever ways in their own lives.”

Enhancing our clients’ health with your support

2014 Year in Review DECEMBER – We kicked off the final month of this busy year by marking World AIDS Day on December 1 in an even bigger way than usual. We began the day with the Pathways to Health & Well-Being HIV Conference, in partnership with Riverside County Departments of Public Health and Mental Health, at the Palm Springs Convention Center. In addition to exhibitors and breakout sessions on 12 different topics, the keynote address was delivered by long-time HIV activist and writer, Sean Strub.

That evening at the Camelot Theatres, Mr. Strub, who is also the founder of POZ Magazine, was honored as one of five Everyday Heroes, “ordinary people doing extraordinary things” … like those right here in our own backyard, who are donating their time and resources to support D.A.P. clients and staff: • Linda Sue Rosefsky has been volunteering at D.A.P. since 1991 and became a certified HIV test counselor the following year. She has more than 9,000 D.A.P. volunteer hours to date – but she also volunteers with Desert Regional, a key Get Tested Coachella Valley community partner!

• Kandy Lee heads a crew of team players dedicated to making the holiday tables of D.A.P. clients more bountiful since 2005 with their annual food drive that fills the Linsky Food Depot at the agency!

• Mark Jones and Brian Vatcher of Brighthaus Marketing, local digital marketing gurus, have not only raised many thousands of dollars for D.A.P. services but also raised the local consciousness that, even after 33 years, we can’t give up the fight!

We hope Everyday Heroes will become an annual event, to salute those who help us to shine a light on the fact that while there’s lots of wonderful progress being made in the world of HIV research, prevention, and care … AIDS is still not over.

NOVEMBER – Career Building Coordinator Valerio Iovino reports 17 clients found jobs and five landed volunteer opportunities after taking the Career Building course he created in April. Valerio’s work is a key part of our Behavioral Health Department’s response to the challenges facing many D.A.P. clients, who are recovering from severe, long-term illness and want to resume normal lives. D.A.P. aims to help them combat depression, stress, isolation, and sometimes poverty by restoring self-confidence and identity through work and/or returning to school.

PrEP, barebacking, serosorting, STI testing, and more were discussed during a Gay Men’s Health Forum, sponsored

by The Dock, a new sexual health clinic at D.A.P. scheduled to open soon. Leading the discussion were D.A.P.’s Medical Director Dr. Steven Scheibel; Dr. Alex del Rosario of Eisenhower Medical Center’s Rimrock Clinic; and Joseph Dahman, a nurse practitioner specializing in HIV medicine at Borrego Health’s Desert Hot Springs Specialty Clinic.

OCTOBER – The 27th Desert AIDS Walk ramped up the community spirit by again sharing funds raised with other local partners including AIDS Assistance Program, the LGBT Community Center of the Desert, the Mizell Senior Center, and others. An estimated 2,500 Walkers were essential in eclipsing our already-aggressive goal of $295,000 by raising more than $332,000!

Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

SEPTEMBER – The newly-beautified, 17,000 square-foot Revivals store in Cathedral City reopened with a new floor, fresh paint, upgraded lighting, and a few other tweaks that improve its look and promise to increase revenues used to support client services.

AUGUST – Why are some people thriving, while others living with HIV seem to develop more co-infections? That’s the main question D.A.P. clients participating in the study of HIV and aging with the School of Medicine at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) aim to help answer. The study to determine ways to successfully age with HIV is made possible by a $3.4 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health.

The Patient Portal – MyDAP.org – an online system that gives patients and clients quick and easy access to medical records, appointments, and staff is launched.

The Coffee House Showcase premier is a smashing success. It featured a cast of clients including artists, a singer, a couple of improv comics, and a bagpiper in full tartan kilt. The larger-than-expected crowd enjoyed a show designed to keep clients active and mingling while entertaining them, too.

JULY – Desert AIDS Project pauses to honor AIDS researchers, activists, and workers killed in the crash of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, the jetliner shot down by a missile over the eastern Ukraine. All 298 souls on board are killed. Among the dead are many people headed to the International AIDS Conference in Melbourne, Australia. Researcher Dr. Joep Lange, former president of the International AIDS Society, was one of the pioneers in AIDS response killed in the crash.

Revivals driver Chris Lomeli entertained at the Dining Out for Life International Conference here in Palm Springs as representatives of more than 60 AIDS service organizations from around the U.S. and Canada took a dinner break at Lulu, thanks to the generosity of Barbara and Jerry Keller and Willie Rhine.

JUNE – D.A.P.’s Annette Bloch Cancer Care Center and Desert Regional Medical Center screened 115 people for oral, head, and neck cancer, free of charge at the second annual event. These cancers appear in the nasal cavity, sinuses, lips, mouth, thyroid glands, salivary glands, throat, or voice box. Collectively, they are the sixth most-common form of cancer in the world, with more than 50,000 cases diagnosed in the U.S. each year, resulting in more than 12,000 American deaths. And HPV, human papilloma virus, is a primary risk factor for oral, head, and neck cancer.

A study discovers that cancers in HIV patients are more likely to go untreated or be handled less aggressively than cancer in patients without the disease. Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Abramson Cancer Center and the National Cancer Institute, who conducted the study, believe this happens because HIV patients don’t participate in trials – so doctors aren’t sure how cancer therapies will affect this population. A $1 million grant from Annette Bloch for the cancer care center that bears her name, allows D.A.P. to treat cancers common in HIV patients. That includes anoscopies that allow our medical team to catch anal cancer and anal dysplasia before it becomes full-blown cancer.

MAY – Get Tested Coachella Valley makes breakthroughs at two huge weekend retreats attracting gay and bisexual men from around the world to Palm Springs each year. At White Party, Get Tested placed its mobile testing unit at high-visibility weekend party locations, including Arenas Road and the Palm Springs Convention Center. Get Tested was even more successful getting center stage at Blatino Oasis, a blast for Black and Latino men. The team offered discount tickets to the event’s main concert for those who got tested and hired spokesmodels to circulate literature and encourage men to test. “We had lines of people getting tested,” recalls Ralph Gonzalez, D.A.P.’s Manager of Prevention, Intervention & Education. The levels of testing and education at both White Party and Blatino Oasis exceeds

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

expectations and draws praise from representatives of the CDC, the State Office of AIDS, and the event’s promoters – making it very clear that the Get Tested team did its work … without breaking the groove!

APRIL – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer visits D.A.P. to recognize the 25 years we’ve received a federal Community Development Block Grant (CDBG.) D.A.P. CEO David Brinkman praises the relationship with CDBG in fulfilling its mission of creating jobs, rebuilding infrastructure, developing housing, providing services, and revitalizing neighborhoods. Boxer toured our facility with celebrity fashion designer Mondo Guerra, a spokesman for Dining Out For Life (DOFL.) Mondo revealed his HIV-positive status while competing on the fashion design competition show, “Project Runaway,” in 2010.

He became an advocate for DOFL, designing a limited edition T-shirt with salt and pepper shakers for the food-lovers’ fundraiser that playfully keeps people talking about HIV and AIDS. D.A.P. status as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) Lookalike is renewed for three years. The FQHC Lookalike designation offers higher reimbursement from government health insurances, such as MediCal and Medicaid, provided we perform certain tasks in a very specific way, tied to caring for the sick regardless of their ability to pay. The stronger assurance of this revenue stream allows us to care for more people, including those who are not HIV-positive.

For example, anyone wanting to protect themselves from HIV infection through a PrEP regimen – including an HIVnegative partner of a D.A.P. client – can access that treatment through our medical clinic. “FQHC Lookalike status helps us ensure we can continue providing high quality care,” says D.A.P.’s Director of Grants, Brande Orr. “And that doesn’t mean just those with who are HIV infected, but to those who are high risk for a number of health reasons, with a focus on low income clients.”

MARCH – Desert AIDS Project dedicates a bench in the Matzner Serenity Garden to client Larry Gibson. Despite many serious health challenges from AIDS, diabetes and Hepatitis-C, Larry was an unflagging volunteer, as a longtime editor of the client newsletter, registering guests at Desert AIDS Walk, and manning the doors at the Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards gala. “Although Larry may be gone from the physical world, his is a light that will never be extinguished for all of us who knew and loved him,” David Brinkman, CEO of D.A.P., said during the dedication.

For years, the M·A·C AIDS Fund has sought to serve people of all ages, all races, and all sexes around the world, who are affected by HIV and AIDS. In March, local representatives of MAC Cosmetics at the Palm Desert Macy’s store donated $10,000 to help more than 450 low-income people living with HIV or AIDS, served by D.A.P., to access housing.

Many of these same people have been supporting D.A.P. as volunteers for years.

FEBRUARY – The Riverside County Department of Public Health releases its first-ever LGBT Health & Wellness Profile. Eastern Riverside County, which includes the Coachella Valley, has the third largest LGBT community in the nation, yet health data on this community is “severely lacking,” the report says. The groundbreaking study finds, although more local gay and bisexual men report better health than those statewide and in Southern California, the opposite is true for lesbian and bisexual women. It also says that health disparities in mental health, intimate partner violence and substance abuse, among others, persist among the LGBT population in the region.

JANUARY – Former President Bill Clinton visits Desert AIDS Project and praises Get Tested Coachella Valley. Clinton leads the Clinton Foundation, which established the Clinton Health Access Initiative. The CHAI enlists governments, non-profits, businesses, and individuals to fight healthcare challenges with HIV and AIDS chief among them. At a breakfast meeting on D.A.P.’s campus, Clinton applauds the GTCV campaign to end the disease through testing, education, and prevention for its vision, commitment, and public/private partnership approach to improving community health.

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

Financials

We have been recognized in both 2013 and 2014 as a “Top 20 HIV/AIDS Charity” by About.com, the largest source for expert content on the Internet, helping 85 million users each month. This list has been assembled for only two years and Desert AIDS Project has been on it for both years. They have cited D.A.P. for our high percentage spent on programs vs. overhead (82% in both 2013 and 2014), our fundraising efforts (raising $100 for every $15 spent), and our financial transparency. In addition, Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent charity evaluator, providing free ratings of the financial health/accountability and transparency of thousands of nonprofit organizations, has awarded Desert AIDS Project “four-star status” for four, consecutive years. This is an achievement reached by only 7% of all nonprofits they rank.

6+8+152942 32+8+67419 REVENUES

EXPENSES

Medical: $3,214,741 (32%) – We provide primary and HIV-specialty medical care, as well as behavioral health services, onsite in our Wells Fargo Health Center.

Fees for Service: $5,087,261 (42%) – D.A.P. accepts most PPOs, IEHP, Desert Oasis HMOs and PPOs, HealthNet Covered California, Medicare, and other private pay insurance plans. MediCal and MISP (Medically Indigent Services Program) also help fund these services.

Grants and Contracts: $3,574,743 (29%) – Awarded by public and private funders, grants and contracts provide support for free and confidential HIV testing, food, behavioral health, and much more. This includes funds awarded from the Ryan White HIV/ AIDS Program.

Donor Support - Net: $1,882,511 (15%) – Individual contributions, fundraising events, bequests through estate plans, and other non-cash contributions.

Revivals Stores - Net: $953,610 (8%) – New merchandise, in addition to gently-used donated and consigned items, are sold through our chain of Revivals stores, almost completely staffed by volunteers.

Other Income: $746,276 (6%) – Investment income and rental income helps D.A.P. to fund the desired “nest egg” of several months of operating expenses for especially difficult financial times.

Dental: $776,622 (8%) – Oral care is essential for a healthy immune system. Our staff provides compassionate dental care to our patients.

Social Services: $818,303 (8%) – Includes support and other support services like food, housing, and transportation.

Case Management: $827,055 (8%) – Case managers link clients to additional services, remove barriers to care, and help clients to be their own advocates.

Mental Health: $608,645 (6%) – Includes psychosocial support in the form of support groups, social activities in our Community Center, and sessions with staff therapists Home Health: $843,893 (8%) – Home health care services provided to homebound clients, provided by teams of nurses and social workers.

Management & General: $1,939,531 (19%) – Managing overhead expenses, while paying sufficiently competitive salaries to attract the best staff, is one of the reasons we have been recognized, as noted above, as a “Top 20 HIV/AIDS Charity” and achieved four-star nonprofit status.

Public Policy & Stigma Reduction: $401,760 (4%) – We enlist public awareness through personal testimonials told in our Client Empowerment series of ads and with our heavy engagement of various publics through a variety of social media venues.

Education & Prevention: $678,504 (7%) – D.A.P. enlists 50+ community partners in the nation’s first region-wide HIV prevention and access-to-care campaign, Get Tested Coachella Valley. Regular testing sites, as well as those tied to specific events, continue to be significantly expanded to engage all demographic groups.

Enhancing our clients’ health with your support

Building self-esteem while building more secure futures

Life was dark and getting darker for Jeffrey Hauling and his life partner Craig Aabye. Both are HIV positive, as well as clients of Desert AIDS Project. Craig, 49, was getting trampled by the virus, leaving him with a T-cell count of only 198, while Jeff, 50, had been hit hard by the recession, leaving him unemployed for six months. Jeff and Craig were two months behind in their rent and on the verge of homelessness.

But their situation changed quickly, after consulting with Valerio Iovino, D.A.P.’s Career Building Coordinator. Within days, Jeff was back at work, as the front desk clerk at the Spanish-accented Triada boutique hotel in downtown Palm Springs.

“I was out there job hunting eight hours a day,” Jeff says, “and I wasn’t finding anything. Within a week, this one changed everything for me.”

Cue Valerio‘s happy smile! In the nine months that he’s been at D.A.P., Valerio has helped 31 clients, including Jeff, find jobs. Another seven have landed volunteer positions. And each client’s story is just as compelling as Jeff and Craig’s.

Director of Clinical Services Dr. David Hersh, says D.A.P. had to address returning to work because there was a critical and common situation among many of our clients. After being diagnosed with HIV or full-blown AIDS at a time when it was an almost-certain death sentence, they dealt with side effects of early medications that were often harsh and debilitating. A lot of clients spent decades being terribly sick with death all around them. The result was a host of mental health challenges that included depression, anxiety, and isolation. Some felt they’d lost their identity and purpose in life when their illness forced them to withdraw from careers, from jobs, from life. So they retreated to their sofas to wait…

Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

Chuck Bent is one such client. After being diagnosed with AIDS in 1996, the 56-year-old laborer was given 10 years, “at the outside,” to live. “A lot of people were getting skinny, had purple spots, and were dying on the streets of San Francisco,” Chuck recalls, “and I was wondering when it was going to happen to me.”

While grateful that his name wasn’t added to that “final list,” Chuck spent years wrestling with mental health issues, some of which were a result of his diagnosis. Aside from a few odd jobs, he’d been on disability for his entire adult life. “The thought of going back to work was frightening to me,” he says, “I knew I’d always be worrying about when my health was going to fall apart again.”

Nevertheless, Chuck was tired of sitting and waiting. Valerio’s Career Building workshop became the antidote.

Chuck now works in maintenance at D.A.P. and makes Valerio proud when he sees Chuck in the D.A.P. hallways and hears him say, “Hey, I got up, I showered, I shaved, I came to work!”

The back-to-work roadmap The workshop, which is included in the broad network of social services available at D.A.P., is based on Valerio’s background in workplace psychology.

He earned a Master’s degree in Business Psychology from the University of Turin in Italy in 2007 and a second Master’s in 2009 from Keller Graduate School of Management in Human Resources, specializing in employment counseling.

He wrote his dissertation on positive emotions, well-being, and focus as it relates to work and career, and contributed to the book, “Dimensions of Well Being: Research and Intervention.”

He also worked in human resources at firms that include HSBC Bank in London.

Valerio poured all this know-how into the Career Building course, which meets at 3:00 PM on Mondays and Wednesdays. The Monday seminar lasts eight weeks. The Wednesday sessions are ongoing. The highly scripted curriculum covers topics including resume writing and interview skills.

Frank Roman, who went from unemployed to working with Get Tested Coachella Valley, explained that this is a meticulous process that enlightened and changed him. “I thought I had a good resume,” says Frank, 52, who graduated Tennessee’s Southern Adventist University with a degree in (cont. on back)

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

communications. “I thought I had good interview skills. But practicing with Valerio, I learned how far from that truth I was.” Frank says Valerio dissects resumes, explaining why most must be one page.

Frank also learned that computer programs sort resumes, retaining those with the same words in the job description. Therefore, a job seeker ends up with several resumes that describe them in relation to each position for which they’ve applied.

“I learned that a resume is a living, breathing document that continues morphing on your desktop.” But, most important to Frank, the course restored his confidence. “There were times when the class took on the dimensions of group support therapy,” he says. “It was an extremely valuable experience.”

“A lot of people forgot who they are and what they can do,” Valerio says. “Even though a resume shows a client has been out of the workforce since 2002, the education and skills listed there still are valid accomplishments. You have to believe what’s on that resume is who you are.” Valerio drums this mantra during his two-tiered program that includes a skills assessment, finding your interests, expanding your skill set, researching potential employers, and demonstrating how a job prospect fits the company’s needs and image. There also are guest speakers and mock interviews in full interview attire. No loud colors or jewelry. No heavy cologne or aftershave. No talking with hands. Always be erect, poised, and energetic, Valerio instructs.

Alongside all these directives is the one that says be confident. “They need somebody to believe in them,” Valerio says. “They say: ‘You are the only one who believes in me. You believe in me more than I do.’ ” Michael Buchholz says he got a much-needed shot of confidence from the class before getting a job stocking the honor bars throughout the Triada hotel. Michael tracks consumption of snacks and beverages in the rooms so that customers are billed appropriately while maintaining proper inventory levels throughout the hotel. “Michael dressed nicely, went for the interview, and got hired on the spot,” Valerio beams.

“I turned in 15 applications before I went to Valerio,” Michael says. “I’m not very personable on paper. I don’t know how to razzle dazzle.

Spelling and penmanship were not my strong suits but Valerio put my resume together and after that I felt more confident in that piece of paper.”

Perhaps Chuck sums it up for all when he said, “It’s amazing I’m still alive. I certainly hadn’t planned on it. I’m still getting used to the idea of having to be at work on time with people counting on me to do stuff. When I go home, I’m usually very tired, but it’s a good tired.”

Pathways To Greater HIV Awareness For Youth And Others The 10-12 member teams of AmeriCorps NCCC (National Civilian Community Corps,) ages 18 to 24, are usually serving local communities in five service areas: urban and rural development, disaster relief, environmental stewardship, infrastructure improvement, and energy conservation. But on World AIDS Day, the “Green 4, Class 21” team was at the Pathways to Health and Well-Being HIV Conference 2014, held at the Palm Springs Convention Center, just to learn and help spread the word among their personal networks about the ongoing need for HIV education and testing.

“We’ve been in the Coachella Valley area, rebuilding trails in Pioneertown that were damaged in the 2006 fire,” said Andrew Hirst, Project Outreach Liaison. “Since our team works from Tuesday through Saturday, we thought coming to this conference would be a great way to spend Monday, as a day off, and maybe learn something new.”

The entire NCCC team of 10 came to the conference, which began at 9:00 AM on Monday, December 1 – to mark World AIDS Day – as a partnership between D.A.P. and the Riverside County Departments of Public Health and Mental Health. After welcoming remarks and film clips from the soon-to-be-released Desert Migration, a documentary illustration of the issues some Palm Springs residents are feeling as long-time survivors of HIV, national HIV activist Sean Strub gave the keynote address.

Before heading off to the first of the day’s series of breakout sessions, the NCCC group and all other conference attendees checked out the tables of exhibitors who were distributing literature and offering the latest information on a variety of topics, such as advances in HIV medications. A total of 12 break-out sessions – three rounds of four break-out choices – were offered throughout the day.

These included sessions on PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis,) Aging with HIV, Anxiety and Stress Reduction, Women’s Health, and the Affordable Care Act and Health Care Reform, among others.

Members of the NCCC group broke up, so that they could attend as many of the break-out sessions as possible. “We all learned a lot and found the day to be really interesting,” said Hirst.

As they get ready to head off to Montana for their next project – after a week and a half of software training, they’ll be helping complete tax returns for low-income families – the team will be carrying a bit of knowledge they didn’t have before. This is part of the way that D.A.P. and its community partners are continuing to help tell the world that “AIDS is not over” and everyone needs to be tested regularly for HIV.

Enhancing our clients’ health with your support

FEBRUARY 2015

Board Members say, “IT’S PERSONAL!”

As National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day approached on Saturday, February 7, we spoke with two locally-prominent African-American women to learn a bit more about why they choose to serve as board members for Desert AIDS Project.

Carolyn Caldwell is President and CEO of Desert Regional Medical Center (DRMC) and was recently honored by the City of Palm Springs Human Rights Commission for her work with the James O. Jessie Desert Highland Unity Center and her ongoing commitment to affordable healthcare for everyone in the Coachella Valley, including her role as a “champion” for Get Tested Coachella Valley. And WHAT a champion! Carolyn persuaded DRMC’s parent, Tenet Healthcare Corporation, to get behind Get Tested in a BIG way: a $1.5 million gift to help this region-wide public health campaign meets its goals of 1) dramatically reducing HIV infections by making voluntary HIV testing standard and routine medical practice and 2) ensuring linkage to care.

Sheila Williams, an attorney and a law professor at California Desert Trial Academy College of Law, knows that African-Americans are burdened more by HIV/AIDS than any other ethnic group … with discrimination, poverty, lack of adequate healthcare, and just-plain-old-fear being the biggest culprits in ongoing, rising HIV infection rates among black Americans. An up-close-and-personal experience in helping a dear friend deal with the strange and angry disease that seemed to mostly be affecting gay men in the early 1980s was enough to turn Sheila into an AIDS activist. Thirty years later, she’s more convinced than ever that a world without HIV would be a world with far less fear and stigma.

Truly these are two women who embrace the theme of this year’s National Black HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, “I Am My Brother’s and Sister’s Keeper. Fight HIV/AIDS!” What was your earliest experience with HIV or AIDS? Did that experience inform your decision to become involved with Desert AIDS Project?

Sheila: My experience goes back to the days of the earliest diagnoses when I was watching friend after friend die of AIDS. I was living in Laguna Beach at the time and one of those friends was sick and alone, so I took him into my home and cared for him until he passed away. I got involved with a local AIDS service organization called Laguna Shanti – it’s now known as simply Shanti – and I was on their board for a couple of years. When I moved to the desert, I wanted to reconnect to this cause. So, when D.A.P. asked to join their board, I didn’t hesitate.

Carolyn: I was working as a medical technologist in the early 80s when HIV/AIDS was at its worst as an epidemic. It was devastating to watch so many young people die from this mysterious disease that we knew so little about. My best friend at the time was a gay co-worker, who tested positive in 1984 and lost his battle to AIDS in 2000.

We were very close and I experienced his sorrow each time one of his friends would (cont. on back) die. I so wish my friend could see how much things have changed Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

Testing + Treatment = Prevention The prevalence of HIV in the Coachella Valley is more than twice the national rate – putting everyone in our local communities at greater risk. But while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recommended, since 2006, that all American adolescents and adults get tested for HIV, more than half of Coachella Valley residents have never been tested for HIV. Now an important new coalition of Community Partners is beginning to turn the tide toward dramatically reducing the spread of HIV as …

Get Tested Coachella Valley has an AMAZING first year!!!

In addition to attracting attention and praise from former President Bill Clinton and his Clinton Health Matters Initiative, the CDC, and the California State Office of AIDS, the three-year, $5 million Get Tested Coachella Valley initiative logged some significant progress in 2014 toward achievement of its four powerful strategies for success: 1. Engage the local healthcare community – hospitals, clinics, and physicians – to make HIV testing a standard of care.

• 82% of all HIV tests were conducted in clinical settings • The number of HIV tests processed by LabCorp increased 24% .

• Desert Regional Medical Center identified five positive HIV test results, while Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest had 11 preliminary positives.

• Other important Get Tested partners committed to initiating routine testing for their patients, including Eisenhower Medical Center, JFK Memorial Hospital, the two Riverside County Health System medical clinics located in the Coachella Valley, and a number of individual physicians.

2. Expand the network of HIV and STD/STI testing sites – including mobile units – to reach individuals at higher risk and those who lack regular contact with healthcare providers.

Under the Get Tested banner, the D.A.P. testing team: • Increased HIV testing at nonclinical community test sites and events by 39%. (cont. on back)

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org since those awful days in the 1980s and beyond.

All these years later, having the opportunity to be involved with an organization like D.A.P. has been rewarding to me on so many levels – both personally and as a healthcare professional.

How would you describe the black community’s response to HIV and AIDS, and is that response missing anything important?

Carolyn: I think there is, unfortunately, still a lot of stigma in the African-American community about HIV and AIDS. That’s why reaching out to the black community for education and support is so important. D.A.P. has a tremendous outreach to the entire community, which has only become more significant as they have led the region-wide efforts of Get Tested Coachella Valley. In its first year, Get Tested Community Partners reported more than 20,000 HIV tests conducted and the campaign increased the number of HIV community test sites by 52%. But most importantly, of those who tested positive, 87.5% were placed in treatment – a rate higher than state or national averages.

Sheila: I often think of Dr. Martin Luther King and how he was able to mobilize folks. Not only in the black community but in so many other population segments as well … who knew that, regardless of race, we share common goals as humans in moving forward. Dr. King was the kind of man who could bring people together – when people heard him, they listened and mobilized, they got behind him. How wonderful would it be, to have another leader like Dr. King, who could be a galvanizing force around important issues to the black community, like HIV and AIDS? I like to think that it’s his example that has people saying today, “I am greater than AIDS.” On February 7, the same day as this HIV Awareness Day, D.A.P. held its annual Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards. This year, gala attendees were invited to “imagine a world without HIV” – what does that future look like to you?

Sheila: At the start of this epidemic, people were terrified they would somehow get HIV just by touching or cuddling or kissing someone who had the virus. They were THAT unaware of how the virus was really transmitted. We still live a bit in that germaphobe world with people wiping down gym equipment and grocery cart handles … but I’m hopeful that we’ll get past the unreasonable fears and that people will learn how to stay HIV negative or get into care if HIV positive. Regardless of anyone’s HIV status, I imagine a future without HIV as a world with far less stigma and fear.

Carolyn: Quite simply, I imagine a world without HIV/AIDS as a world where we no longer have to deal with the devastation and stigma that this virus has created. What a much more beautiful world that will be!

With board members like these, we are certain that Desert AIDS Project will continue to help bring about that HIV-free future and that – one day – D.A.P. will be a place people come to be cured, instead of treated!

“Knowing your HIV status is an important way to take care of yourself, your family, and your community.

I support the objectives of Get Tested Coachella Valley and encourage everyone to participate. We have the power to bring an end to the HIV epidemic if we join together as a community and each do our part.”

Barbara Keller Chair, Board of Directors Desert AIDS Project

“Both as a physician and a U.S. Representative, I’m proud to be a champion for Get Tested Coachella Valley/Hazte la Prueba Valle de Coachella. Anyone can contract the HIV virus—regardless of age, gender, race/ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or socio-economic circumstance. Staying healthy is much easier when you get tested and know your HIV status. Seek care if you’re positive. If you’re negative, do your best to stay that way. Let’s put stigma and ignorance behind us and create a healthier, safer community.”

“HIV is totally preventable, yet the epidemic persists.

It’s a serious issue here in the Coachella Valley. But as healthcare providers and members of the community, we can make a dramatic difference. If you’re a healthcare provider, offer the test. If you’re a patient, ask for one.”

Carolyn Caldwell, President & CEO Desert Regional Medical Center

Dr. Raul Ruiz United States Representative, CA-36

3.

4.

• Increased community test sites by 52%.

• Identified a positivity rate of 1.6% from 61 preliminary positive test results.This 22% increase over 2013 is well-above the CDC’s expected 1% rate for non-clinical, targeted HIV testing.

Create a new regional Linkage to Care Network that enables providers to quickly and easily refer their patients, ensuring that any individual who tests positive for HIV receives medical treatment and appropriate care and counseling.

• 87.5% of newly-diagnosed HIV-positive patients were linked to care

by Early Intervention Specialists.

• This rate exceeds state and national averages: • California average: 52% • National average: 66% • CDC goal: 80% Produce a communications campaign – in both English and Spanish – to educate and motivate both HIV-negative and –positive individuals to reduce stigma, protect their own health, and prevent others from becoming infected.

• A digital campaign on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google+, and Instagram, as well as English and Spanish websites and Get Talking blog.

• YesGTCV – a unique Social Ambassador program – amplifies the Get Tested message across social channels.

• Get Tested “champion” Rep. Raul Ruiz, MD recorded Spanish radio and TV public service spots.

• Incentives for HIV testing in low-income neighborhoods including a bilingual Every Door Direct Mail outreach.

• Leading physicians appeared in “Request the Test” ad series in The Desert Sun. • Campaign “Orange Parties” – a youth outreach initiative developed

by Get Tested’s college interns. Get Tested Coachella Valley provides pizza, soft drinks, and a 15 minute presentation that educates and engages young people in a new conversation about HIV.

To learn more about Get Tested Coachella Valley, visit gettestedcoachellavalley.org

Enhancing our clients’ health with your support

Connecting to women with HIV and AIDS

MARCH 2015

Desert AIDS Project opens “The DOCK” – a sexual health clinic – on March 16 At D.A.P. On Monday, March 16, Desert AIDS Project is opening a new sexual health clinic for men and women called the DOCK. “The idea for The DOCK came out of our Get Tested Coachella Valley coalition of community partners, which just completed a very successful first year of getting adults and adolescents tested for HIV,” said David Brinkman, CEO of Desert AIDS Project. “Get Tested Coachella Valley is a ‘Treatment as Prevention’ model, which connects people who test HIV-positive to care and services, benefiting their own health while also making them substantially less likely to transmit HIV to others.”

In addition to HIV testing, The DOCK will later provide testing and treatment for other Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and will offer PrEP and PEP medication therapies to help individuals at higher risk of acquiring HIV to safeguard their HIVnegative status. (See below for more information about PrEP and PEP.) The new clinic will be open Monday-Friday from 8:00 AM – 5:00 PM. Appointments can be made by calling 760-992-0492 starting March 16. Free and confidential HIV testing is available on a walk-in basis, with no appointment necessary.

The name of the new clinic stems in part from its unique entryway: the loading dock ramp located on the south side of the Desert AIDS Project building. A second factor is the play on words between “dock” and “doc” (doctor).

The program model for The DOCK was developed in collaboration with the California Department of Public Health’s STD Control Branch, the California Office of AIDS, and the Los Angeles LGBT Center. “Our intention for The DOCK is to completely address the sexual wellness needs of our local community, regardless of their ability to pay,” said D.A.P. Medical Director Dr. Steven Scheibel, MD, AAHIVS. “We can’t let the lack of insurance coverage be responsible for a greater spread of HIV or any sexually-transmitted infection.”

PrEP? PEP? What is this alphabet soup?

While a cure for HIV and/or AIDS may someday change this, the human immune system can’t rid the body of HIV, once the virus enters. A bout with the flu might be exhausting and uncomfortable, we know that there’s an end in sight, once the virus clears our system. Not so with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV).

HIV attacks our T-cells – also known as CD-4 cells – using them to make copies of the virus. The good news is that not everyone who becomes infected with HIV will eventually progress to an AIDS diagnosis.

However, if HIV is not properly intercepted through medication and ongoing care, it will destroy so many T-cells that it will advance to AIDS, the final stage of HIV infection. (continued on next page) Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

Desert AIDS Project has some amazing events planned for women and girls this season. Tuesday, March 10, is National Women and Girls HIV and AIDS Awareness Day. The day was marked with a presentation by AIDS activist and author Paige Rawl. Paige was a born with HIV and kept it secret until middle school when she “came out” with her status and was bullied so intensely she seriously considered suicide. Paige shared her experience in her book “Positive: A Memoir.”

The free event, held at the Sinatra Auditorium at Desert Regional Medical Center, also featured jewelry crafted by Same Sky artisans – sub-Saharan women whose villages have been deeply affected

by HIV/AIDS. Another free event, to be held later this spring, is the Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Empowerment Day. The theme is “Creating a bridge to self-empowerment and career development,” says Brett Klein, D.A.P.’s Events & Retail Marketing Manager and organizer of the day. Our guests will meet for lunch, a fashion show, shopping gift certificates to Revivals and My Best Friend’s Closet, as well as salons, and tips from our Career Building Coordinator Valerio Iovino on getting into the workforce.

The Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Empowerment Day’s supporters include D.A.P., 100 Women, Revivals, Walgreens, My Best Friend’s Closet, which donates business attire to women in need, and the Girlfriend Factor, which helps women become economically self-sufficient.

Brett says it’s important that these groups came together to celebrate women and girls affected by HIV and AIDS, even though connecting with them is a challenge.

About 132, or 5.4%, of our 2449 clients are female.

Janine Bell, Substance Abuse Specialist who leads our Women’s Empowerment Group, explains that reaching women is difficult because they’re not as “out” about their HIV-positive status as gay men. (continued on next page)

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

The DOCK cont.

PrEP – or Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis – helps guard against HIV infection PrEP is a way for those who do not have HIV to prevent acquiring the virus by taking a daily pill.

At present, the only PrEP regimen is Truvada – a combination therapy of tenofovir and emtricitabine – used to treat many who are already living with HIV. PrEP with Truvada has been endorsed by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) as a “powerful HIV prevention tool and can be combined with condoms and other prevention methods to provide an even greater protection than when used alone.” In a high-prevalence-forHIV area like the Coachella Valley, people who are HIV-negative should carefully consider whether PrEP might be right for them, as a means of remaining virus-free. However, adherence to the daily pill regimen is important and it should always be remembered that PrEP does NOT guard against possible infection from other sexually-transmitted infections, including Hepatitis C. PEP – or Post-Exposure Prophylaxis – if you think you may have just been exposed to HIV Similar to PrEP, a PEP regimen involves antiretroviral medications used to treat an HIVinfected person. However in the case of PostExposure, these medicines must be taken as soon as possible – but no more than 72 hours – after the person believes s/he may have been exposed to HIV. The two to three medicines used in PEP stop HIV from making copies of itself and spreading through the body.

PEP must be taken for 28 days – but may not guarantee that someone exposed will not become infected with HIV. It is not a substitute for regular use of HIV prevention methods, such as PrEP mentioned above, or the correct and consistent use of condoms. Anyone prescribed PEP will be asked to return for HIV testing at 4-6 weeks, then at three months, and again at six months after the potential exposure to HIV.

Women cont.

They don’t hang out around D.A.P.’s campus and mingle. After completing their medical, dental or case management appointments, they bolt, Janine observes.

“Women still tend to be the family caregivers, who aren’t used to taking time for themselves, rather than hearth and home,” she says. Janine’s empowerment group was established last year to give our female clients their own space to share their stories and support each other’s dreams, Janine says.

Our female clients with HIV and those simply affected by it also have a strong ally in 100 Women. This group of women philanthropists pours resources into things women need, including everything from mammograms for themselves to school clothes for their children.

Medical leaders at D.A.P. have to be people who know…

… not just how to treat HIV and AIDS but how the virus and the disease live in our society. And how they change people’s lives.

By the time they joined us in 2013, Dr. Steven Scheibel and Dr. David Hersh were already “medical leaders in the know.” No wonder the HIV specialist and the psychiatrist, respectively, were elevated to care and clinical leadership positions before either of them had been with Desert AIDS Project a full year.

With a deep background in AIDS-specific care and research, as well as internal medicine, Dr. Scheibel became Medical Director. He maintains a client caseload of his own while overseeing all of D.A.P.’s other medical providers – doctors, a physician assistant, nurse practitioners, nurses, and medical assistants – who tend to our clients’ health on a daily basis.

Dr. Hersh, a Yale-trained psychiatrist and university professor with a solid background in public health, took the reins as Director of Clinical Services in charge of our clients’ overall well-being. In addition to supervising another psychiatrist, a psychiatric nurse practitioner, mental health clinicians and therapists in Behavioral Health Services, he also oversees Home Health Services, the Dental Clinic, and all of Social Services, including Case Management.

With March designated each year as Professional Social Work Month and March 30 marked as National Doctor’s Day, we thought you might like to know a bit more about how Dr. Scheibel and Dr. Hersh are leading their teams of highly-capable professionals in bringing compassionate and comprehensive medical care, along with a complete set of social services, to D.A.P.’s clients. Each of these teams has insights into what’s necessary to meet the special kinds of challenges that come with living with HIV or AIDS. Now well into the fourth decade since first diagnosed and labeled, HIV and AIDS still pack a punch since it first appeared in 1981.

Today, the challenge has changed from dying of AIDS at a young age … to living with HIV or AIDS into middle age and beyond… something neither experts nor patients could have predicted just a few years ago. It’s a challenge that Scheibel and Hersh, along with the many professionals working for them, deal with on a daily basis.

Dr. Scheibel is an essential member of two research teams learning more about how to age with HIV or AIDS in the healthiest manner possible. He works with the UCSD (University of California, San Diego) HIV and Aging Neuropsychological Study (continued on next page) and with Project GRACIE (Geriatric Research of

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

Medical leaders continued AIDS Comorbidities in the Inland Empire,) both of which aim to help patients get the most out of their golden years.

“This kind of research is what helps D.A.P. and other AIDS service organizations to continue providing our clients with great primary and HIV-specialty care,” Dr. Scheibel says.

Meanwhile, Dr. Hersh is mulling over the same set of issues – but from a mental health perspective – and introducing potential solutions of another kind. “Most of my patients are true survivors. They lived through a hellish time, and managed to hold it together.

Most didn’t expect to live into their 30 s, let alone their 40 s or 50 s or beyond,” Dr. Hersh says. “Now, here they are today grappling with depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and other mental health issues. My patients typically aren’t dying from HIV anymore. But many of them ARE dealing with issues of stigma, isolation, loneliness, financial woes, medical problems, and an unclear path forward.”

But the D.A.P. teams have installed programs to help clients navigate their often-uncertain futures. Dr. Hersh oversees the Client Wellness Services Center at D.A.P., administered by Ray Robertson, where a number of other therapy groups help clients cope – AIDS and aging, substance abuse, smoking cessation, women’s empowerment, Tea and HIV, and more. This Center is also home to a number of non-invasive, alternative therapies, such as acupuncture, Reiki, and yoga that address pain, stress, insomnia, and depression.

Client art exhibits and the Coffeehouse Showcase rebuild self-esteem by helping clients reconnect to their talents. Stigma and isolation are knocked down when everyone comes out to see these shows and admire the work. As a means of appealing to more and more clients, a new Horticulture Therapy class was launched just last week … soon to be followed by classes in Art Therapy and Pet Therapy.

The new Career Building workshop helps clients, many of whom have been on disability for more than a decade, get back to work. Nearly 50 clients have found jobs or volunteer posts because of the workshop. The program’s coordinator, Valerio Iovino, just got a shout-out from a Colorado AIDS service organization looking to replicate the program.

The doctors also know our Coachella Valley, with its unique mix of easygoing charm and high energy activities, appeals to retirees, tourists, the LGBT community, and lots of others who see our desert cities as a playground. When a meningitis outbreak started in Los Angeles County in early 2014 with half of the infections occurring among men who have sex with men (MSM,) Dr. Scheibel said, “Given that our patient population includes a large number of MSM, it was important that we take immediate action to protect them and our greater community against any possible meningitis infection.”

Knowing that two international weekend retreats attracting huge numbers of gay men – the White Party and Blatino Oasis – were about to start in Palm Springs, D.A.P. offered clients and anyone else concerned a free meningitis vaccine. Dr. Scheibel continued, “Although we didn’t feel any need to panic, this was an opportunity to potentially protect against a national or even international spread of meningitis.” Almost a year later – and with the White Party and Blatino Oasis soon to return to Palm Springs for another year – no local case has been found.

It’s good to have doctors “in the know.”

A good meal can put a smile on your face!

Any Registered Dietitian (R.D.) who has worked with someone living with HIV or AIDS knows that “food is medicine” and that certain foods can be very important in strengthening the immune system.

That’s why D.A.P. is always working to help our clients make healthy food choices through our food voucher program, our Farmers Market, and our twice-monthly cooking class where clients learn to make great, no-fuss meals for very little money, while keeping a sanitary kitchen. They even walk away from each class with a new recipe card, so they can try the new, healthy dish at home – but not before they all enjoy the just-cooked meal together!

Elizabeth Kelsey, R.D. – who presented a breakout session on “HIV and Nutrition” at the 2014 Pathways to Health and Well-Being HIV Conference on World AIDS Day – puts it this way: “The more nutrients you have, the healthier you are … meaning the more able your body is to use its own defenses to fight off infections.” With March as National Nutrition Month, Elizabeth advises that a good, balanced diet starts with protein, which helps build muscles, organs, and a strong immune system, along with vitamins and minerals to help regulate the body’s proper functioning. While “clean food” and healthy eating is beneficial for (continued on next page)

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Food cont. anyone, it’s essential to those living with HIV or AIDS. HIV – and the medications used to combat it – put certain pressures on the body. These might include extreme weight loss, infections, diarrhea, and lipodystrophy. The latter condition causes an upset in fat distribution, sometimes resulting in a dramatically altered body shape.

People who are HIV-positive need extra vitamins and minerals to help repair and heal damaged cells. Vitamins such as A, beta carotene, B, C, E, zinc and selenium can boost the immune system and mitigate effects of the virus. These nutrients come in fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, poultry, nuts, beans, peanut butter, certain oils, and some dairy products. Conversely, while processed foods, sugar, alcohol, and saturated fats might taste good, they inhibit the immune system.

The third Wednesday of each month is food distribution day at D.A.P. – when 250-300 clients receive food vouchers, good at any Stater Brothers grocery store, as well as bags of food from the Farmers Market in the Morris & Lila Linsky Food Depot here at D.A.P. Housing Case Manager Nichelle Austin says those vouchers and food bags fill the gap between what a client can afford – many are on a fixed income – and what they need to eat well.

Those food bags often contain whole grain items and beans, which are high in plantbased protein, as well as gluten-free and lowsalt choices. As just one example, Support Service Manager Monica Aitchison notes that the food bags often include shelf-stable items like Cheerios and Cornflakes because they are lower in sugar than other cereals. “We also provide dietary supplements, such as Boost and Glucerna, which help clients, who have a hard time swallowing food, stay nourished,” Monica says. “And clients who have difficulty taking pills often mash them up in the peanut butter or apple sauce that comes in our food bags.”

Nichelle reminds us that D.A.P. gives special thought to those clients who may be homeless, making it difficult to open or prepare food. She says, “That means we give out pop-open cans and such whenever possible so they won’t have such a hard time getting TO the food we distribute.”

So, as we wish each other a happy National Nutrition Month, think about the friendly advice of Elizabeth, the registered dietitian: “It comes down to three simple rules: Eat a rainbow of colors; fats can be fabulous as long as they are the right kind; and eat food the way Mother Nature intended. That means choosing potatoes over Pringles every time!”

C’est si bon Walk into the west entrance of Desert AIDS Project and you’ll ask yourself three questions: “Where did all this unique and amazing art come from? Why is it here?”

And, “Is that Eartha Kitt?”

Yes, it’s Eartha, the internationally famed actress, singer, and cabaret star, who played Catwoman, sexy scourge of television’s Batman of the 1960s. The halo of French written on her vintage photograph says, “C’est si bon. De se dire des mots doux.” Translation: “It’s so good.

To say sweet words to each other…”

Eartha’s portrait is among an exhibit of about 30 pieces that have brought nothing but sweet words to its curator, Ray Robertson, D.A.P.’s Wellness Services manager. The exhibit debuted in November with different art work going up every three months.

“Everybody loves it,” Ray says, referring to the feedback he’s been getting.

“Everybody thinks it’s the answer. They say ‘The art is beautiful,’ and ‘It’s fun to stop and look at it.’ ” But the exhibit’s most important attribute is that it’s therapeutic. It’s the newest in an ever-growing list of activities that our behavioral health specialists have designed to support our population. Those programs include group sessions on aging with AIDS, smoking cessation, substance abuse counseling, women’s empowerment and returning to work and careers. Art Therapy, Pet Therapy, and Community Gardening are coming soon.

The wellness theory behind the exhibit involves “the esteeming of clients, getting them out of the house and making them feel good about themselves,” Ray says. “It exposes them to the excitement of getting their work into an art gallery showing. It thrills them.”

Artist Steve Bleecker agrees. “What an honor to be in this display,” he says, “to put your stuff on the wall and have people see it.” Steve showed several pieces including Brotherhood, which depicts his take on the friendship between Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer. “When Ray asked me to display my work, it was like a call to say ‘Get off your fanny and get busy and produce again,’ ” Steve says. “I take my hat off to Ray and D.A.P. for that.”

Seven artists have participated in the current exhibit, which includes works in felt-tip pen on paper, mosaic tiles, oils, watercolor, digital art, acrylics, and photography. Eartha Kitt’s picture is a combination of the latter. The artist uses a crumpled and creased photograph to create texture and applies acrylic paint to suggest a wash dripping over Eartha’s picture. There’s a similar portrait of disco diva Donna Summer awash in color as well. Aside from the two famous singers, the artist’s submissions include three of a male form and an abstract all with the dripping technique.

Then there is the Candelabra Package Seeds in Anita’s Home in Palm Beach.

This is a collection of four paintings in acrylics, oils, and sell vinyl on canvas.

It’s as if the artist took an imaginative snapshot of Anita’s dining room table and displayed it from four different perspectives.

James Gallucci created beachfront oil paintings and the used the Adobe Illustrator computer program to make the digitally designed cityscapes of Los Angeles and Palm Springs previously on display. “The city scenes are geometric shapes I created out of my imagination,” James explains. “It’s an assembly of geometric shapes with gradients for color. I used blue and orange for that translucent look. I was stealing an art deco style while I was doing it.”

Like Steve, James found the request to show his art inspiring and motivational.

“I was excited. It made me feel good about my work again simply because he liked it enough to want to include it.” Additionally, it was the call to get him working again. “This was a good start,” James concludes.

Ray plans to share the spotlight with others by inviting them to join in on future exhibits. “I hope it’s permanent and on-going, is what I’d like to say about it.”

To that, the staff, clients, and visitors admiring the work as they pass would certainly say, “C’est si bon!”client, Miguel Criado.

New study seeks to improve patient outcomes

APRIL 2015

Home Care helps client lead a more normal life When Dennis Golay and his partner, Larry Gibson, tested positive for HIV infection in 1988, in the days before antiretroviral drugs, it seemed like a death sentence. Dennis is now in his late 60’s, feeling blessed, and that “life is really good,” thanks in no small part to D.A.P. Dennis’ later years had already been hampered by serious illness and then Larry Gibson, his partner of 32 years, died. Through all of this, D.A.P. has been by his side with myriad in-home services, chief among them a Home Caregiver named Steve Meyers.

Christine Bielawa, RN and Medical Case Manager, says Steve is part of our team of case managers, nurses and social workers and Home Caregivers, who make it possible for 70 clients to remain safe and independent in their homes by bringing care to them.

“Home Care Case Management is unique,” Christine says. “We see clients where they live.”

Dennis’ Home Care Team—Social Worker and Registered Nurse—visit quarterly to evaluate his health and assess his needs. They also call frequently to check on him as well, Christine says.

Steve visits on Monday and Thursday doing laundry, light housekeeping, grocery shopping, cooking, and driving Dennis to appointments. “Anything a client needs help with, I’m here to do that,” Steve says.

“He does great laundry,” Dennis chimes in, “not that I have that much.” Dennis is a slight wisp of a guy: five-foot-five and 118 pounds. He needed a pair of big shoulders to lean on when Larry passed away. What he got was support from his Home Care team.

And Steve was there, too, all six-foot-four-inches and 265 pounds of him.

“There’ve been times when I was ill, near death’s door and I couldn’t do anything and Steve was always there,” Dennis recalls. Dennis was hospitalized for 26 days with MRSA, pneumonia and septicemia, his body poisoning itself, the cure wrecking his kidneys. “Steve was there when I got home. He did everything. Then Larry got sick. Life has been traumatic around here. I don’t know what either my partner or I would have done without Steve and the home care staff.”

Steve is very humble in the face of such praise. “My clients are my circle of family,” Steve says shyly. “I don’t think you can do this without building personal relationships and connections with people.”

Dennis and Larry moved to the Palm Springs area in 1995, specifically for the array of services D.A.P. provides, unable to find adequate care elsewhere. Although treatments were still being tested and perfected, and the two battled low T-cells and opportunistic infections, Dennis credits D.A.P. with providing the care they needed to survive, and even thrive, once treatments improved. As their health improved, for many years, they were dedicated volunteers for D.A.P.—in the Food Depot and for the Condom Club, at the Desert AIDS Walk, and the Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards annual fundraising gala. They were outspoken supporters, always ready to tell their stories of living with HIV in an effort to dispel the stigma attached to the disease.

D.A.P. care gave them the opportunity to grow old together, (continued on next page)

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D.A.P. and our very own HIV-Specialized Pharmacy, called “Walgreens D.A.P.”, is one of 10 sites participating in a CDC-sponsored Medication Therapy Management, MTM, study to determine how well these HIV-Specialized Pharmacies are doing.

“We’re looking to see if better communications between pharmacists and physicians can improve lab values,” says D.A.P. Medical Assistant Michelle Sims, who helps us conduct clinical research.

Sheila Lo, PharmD, who manages Walgreens D.A.P., explains: “When we realize a change in the patient’s lab work or a patient reacts differently to their medication, we talk to their physician on the spot and have an immediate resolution to the issue with the patient.”

This real-time interaction between the pharmacist and the physician is designed to 1) increase the number of HIV patients in constant medical care, 2) increase adherence to ART therapy, and 3) lower viral loads among patients. Sheila says Patient-Centered HIV Care pharmacists also aim to increase immunization rates and address co-occurring challenges with cholesterol, blood pressure, and Hepatitis C, for example.

It’s a four-year project that began in 2012 and should conclude in 2016. The patients will be monitored for about 18 months.

“Patients sit down with me and have a comprehensive medical review to see what they’re taking,” Sheila says. “We discuss the proper way of taking the medication or what’s preventing them from taking the medication properly.”

Whether it’s side effects or lack of health insurance that’s getting in the way, Sheila says, “We resolve that and relay the information to the doctor to see what changes we can make.”

Sheila says patients often tell her things they might be reluctant to tell their doctor, such as they simply forget to take meds as prescribed or that they’ve imbibed a little wine here or a little medical “Mary Jane” there.

Some are downright frightened of Hep C meds, which formerly had horrific side effects.

Sheila says she delights in this type of honesty so she can tell patients the truth. For instance, Hepatitis meds have gotten much milder.

D.A.P. Medical Director Dr. Steven Scheibel says the MTM study and the connection to pharmacists is a good idea. “Sometimes I agree with the recommendations and sometimes I don’t,” Dr. Scheibel says. “But the important thing is patients learn more about the importance of taking their medications.

And any help we get in that area can do nothing but good for our patients.”

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Home Care cont. something they hadn’t dared hope for when first diagnosed.

Growing older with HIV is not without its challenges, as older PLWHA (people living with HIV or AIDS) begin to experience other health complications associated with aging and some HIV treatments are even known to accelerate the process.

In fact, Larry battled AIDS plus other coinfections, including Hepatitis C and diabetes for many years. It is Dennis’s feeling that D.A.P. extended his partner’s life at least 10 years beyond what it would have otherwise been.

Several years before that, Dennis himself had suffered a heart attack and underwent quintuple bypass surgery. Already weakened by heart disease, two years ago, he was hospitalized with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) infection complicated by septicemia. Although he survived against the odds, the septicemia and strength of the antibiotics used to treat his infection weakened his kidneys such that he required dialysis for the next seven months. Larry cared for Dennis and then became terrible weak himself.

Even though Larry has passed away, “Every time I come into this house I say hello to Larry,” Steve says. “I say hello to Larry with a combination of sadness and joy. So this is very personal. It’s one of the biggest reasons this work is so rewarding. It’s not just coming into a house to clean it. It’s much more than that.”

“D.A.P.’s Home Care case management can be emotionally challenging due to intimate interactions involved. We get to know families, friends and even neighbors,” Christine says. “It is personal and moving.”

Although Dennis no longer requires dialysis, his health must be closely monitored. Living alone with heart disease and weakened kidneys, Dennis is in need of some assistance in order to remain in his home. Although he is currently insured by an HMO and no longer receives his medical care at D.A.P. through Medi-Cal and Ryan White as he has in the past, he still receives D.A.P. medical transportation assistance.

Dennis reports that the quality of his life has been greatly enriched by D.A.P.’s Home Care team. Although he accepts that someday he may need to sell his home and move to assisted living, with D.A.P. Home Care he says, it will be Dennis’ decision, not that of his disease.

“Home Care allows me to live a normal life,” Dennis says. As he said this, there was a light in his voice that often seemed so contrary to the life challenges Dennis was describing—crushing illness and loss. But his life story is what D.A.P. exists for— to give hope, to facilitate triumph over adversity, and to offer our clients a chance to feel that “life is really good” despite HIV.

Getting closer to a World without AIDS The Chinese philosopher, Lao Tzu, told us that “the journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step.” Let’s keep that in mind as we celebrate World Health Day, April 7.

Ten years, and say 500 miles, ago death from AIDS peaked at 3.1 million lives worldwide, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). That number has fallen by 35% to 1.5 million in 2013. Likewise, the number of people newly diagnosed and living with the infection is falling as well.

This puts the world on track to exceed the target of a 25% reduction by 2015 in the number of people dying from HIV-related causes, according to the WHO. Locally, though, we’ve got some giant steps to take before hitting the same downward trend. That’s because the number of newly diagnosed HIV cases in Riverside County have been climbing since 2005. And the bulk of our county’s residents living with HIV and AIDS – 63% – live in the Coachella Valley.

The journey looks daunting. Steep and scary. But Desert AIDS Project is helping walk the Coachella Valley closer to the goal of a world without AIDS. D.A.P. has the tools to get us there: A new clinic devoted to testing and treating sexually transmitted infections (STIs); a campaign to get the Coachella Valley tested for HIV and AIDS and into life-saving treatment; medical therapies that prolong the lives of those who are HIV positive; and wellness programs that ensure the additional years our clients live will be active and full of meaning and purpose.

Getting to a world without AIDS is all about testing. HIV, which often progresses to AIDS if left untreated, is often spread by those who don’t know they have it. However, those living with HIV, who get care, can live a normal lifespan while treatment reduces the risk of transmission by 96%. So testing is paramount. D.A.P. operates the highest volume HIV testing program in Riverside County, conducting over 2,500 HIV tests annually. The result is a 2% positive rate that is twice the most recently reported national average of 1%, according to the CDC. That’s why the mission of the Get Tested Coachella Valley campaign is to make testing a routine part of any medical visit and spread the gospel of testing throughout the Coachella Valley. Its staff uses a signature orange-and-white mobile testing unit to test and educate at schools, businesses, hospitals, fairs, weekend mega parties, and concerts all over the Coachella Valley. Those who test positive are immediately linked to counseling and treatment that includes highly active antiretroviral therapy, HAART. Then there are preventative measures found at D.A.P., which are also available to partners of clients who may be in sero-discordant relationships – meaning one partner is HIV-positive while the other is HIV-negative. Oneof these prevention methods is called PrEP (Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis,) a daily medication that can help stop someone from contracting HIV; and the other is PEP (Post-Exposure Prophylaxis,) a medical treatment started immediately after someone suspects they may have been exposed to HIV, to help protect against HIV infection. And, of course, D.A.P. also dispenses 36,000 condoms a year – mostly through safer sex kits assembled each month by our “Condom Club.”

D.A.P. clients can get all the information and support they need for STIs by stepping up to our new clinic called The DOCK, which opened March 16 at the south entrance to our campus.

Despite these advances in medications that are loosening the death grip AIDS continues to have on humanity, AIDS is definitely not over. But step by step, we’re getting there.

Hepatitis treatment is as close as The Dock at D.A.P.

Thinking globally, acting locally by getting HIV meds to the developing world This February, D.A.P. shipped 85 pounds of unexpired HIV and AIDS medications from the Coachella Valley to the developing world, participating in the Aid For AIDS program … and we’ll soon be making an equally-sized shipment.

Aid For AIDS (AFA) was established in 1996 to rush unused, unexpired HIV medications from the U.S. to countries where cost and access to breakthrough medications were simply out of reach for many patients living outside the western world. To do our part in helping this worthy effort, D.A.P. opened the HIV Medicines Recycling Drop Box in early November 2014, allowing us to share our relative good fortune with the developing world.

Karynsue Rose-Thomas, D.A.P.’s Director of Quality Assurance and Health Information Technology, spearheaded the effort with AFA and saw that the locked drop box was installed and properly secured against theft or tampering. “Our Drop Box allows clients, as well as others in the community, to donate medications to those throughout the world in need. These might be meds that a patient no longer takes because their doctor has moved them to alternative therapies,” she said. “Of course, the medications we, or any other organization participating in this program, accept have to meet certain criteria before they can be shared with others.”

First and foremost, that means unexpired antiretroviral and HIV prophylaxis medications in their original containers. Medicine that is no longer viable is safely discarded. The rest is redistributed to non-U.S. territories as humanitarian aid. While the AFA program cannot accept narcotics or any narcotic derivatives, D.A.P. and others help collect: HIV and AIDS medications: Antiretrovirals including Protease Inhibitors; Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors; Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors; and Fusion Inhibitors.

Medicines that treat opportunistic infections: These might include Antifungals/Antimycotics, such as Floconazole, Mycelex, Spornox; Antivirals, such as Acyclovir, Flamicovir, Valacylovir; (continued on next page) Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

An uptick in rates of the hepatitis virus has attracted new attention to May, Hepatitis Awareness Month and May 19, Hepatitis Testing Day. Hepatitis is a virus, which comes in three forms, Hep A, B, and C, that preys on the liver and can lead to liver cancer. The three strains of Hepatitis have different causes and modes of transmission. The common element across all three types is that many people, who are in the position to pass it on, don’t even know they have it.

“That’s why we test for Hep B and C as well as HIV at The Dock, our new sexual health clinic, located on the southeast corner of D.A.P.’s main campus,” says …… “HAV and HBC can be passed on through sexual contact and HCV through sharing infected drug paraphernalia. But here at D.A.P. and The Dock, we don’t stigmatize, we don’t judge. We test, we treat, and we immediately connect our patients with counseling and care that’s both compassionate and confidential.”

The door to treatment is wide open on Hepatitis Testing Day and every other day of the year.

The DOCK offers treatment and testing for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhea, chlamydia, human papillomavirus, HPV, as well as Hep B and C. WellWoman exams for the breast and pelvis are conducted at The DOCK along with pap smears and STD screenings. It’s open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, no appointment necessary.

Testing is quick, confidential, and comes with ongoing support for those, who test positive. (continued on next page)

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Aid for AIDS cont.

and Antibiotics, such as Ciprofloxacin, Amoxicilin, Metronidazole.

If you, or someone you know, has any of these unexpired medications, feel free to drop them off at Desert AIDS Project during office hours, from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday. Just black out the name on the prescription bottle, grab a plastic bag for the meds from the reception desk – free of charge – and be on your way with a big THANKS from D.A.P. and those who benefit from these medications!

Hepatitis C cont.

Hepatitis Awareness Month and testing day shine the light on the virus, which is a growing concern nationwide and in Riverside County. About 1.2 million people in the U.S. have Hep B and 3.2 million have Hep C, data from the CDC say. Hep C is the second most prevalent sexually transmitted infection reported in Riverside County where 60%-70% of chronic Hep C cases will develop chronic liver disease and require liver transplants, the county’s 2013 Communicable Disease Report says.

Hep B and Hep C rates had been falling locally, but they’re rising again along with a noticeable jump in cases among women an annual county health report says.

Widespread use of Hep B vaccine has helped curb the spread of that strain. And Hep C is now treatable with drug therapies that aren’t as harsh as they once were.

Nevertheless, Riverside County faces challenges in lowering rates of Hep C. “The Healthy People 2020 objective for acute hepatitis C is 0.2 new cases per 100,000 county residents,” the report says.

“Riverside County did not achieve this goal, with 0.3 cases per 100,000 residents in 2013.” The DOCK and Desert AIDS Project aim to reverse that trend.

Comfy chair, deep breathing, positive thoughts … and s-t-r-e-t-c-h That summarizes the mantra Jason Lushia uses when he leads Chair Yoga for clients of D.A.P.’s Client Wellness Services Center at noon on Mondays and Wednesdays. The classes are yet another non-invasive way for clients to reach toward wellness and maintain it, according to Ray Robertson, manager of the Center.

At a recent session, clients sat in their chairs, heels pressed to the floor, bodies turned to one side, stretching and breathing deep into their core. After one of them says “My jaw tightens,” Jason whispers, “Whenever I feel something unusual, I stop, take a deep breath and release … because I’m the master.” Pointing to his temple, Jason continues: “Once you find that tension, then the breathing comes.”

Jason believes that pain can be managed with a combination of deep breathing and harnessing the power of our brains in a new way. That means if a person encounters pain while exercising, Jason says they should “Breathe into it. Don’t avoid it or push past it.” Just inhale slowly and deeply, give the pain a positive label, and exhale c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y.

A former Marine, peace officer, retail manager, and master’s degree holder, Jason has studied fitness and yoga for total of 25 years. He says he used this technique to combat a host of illnesses, including fibromyalgia, kidney disease, high blood pressure, and Crohn’s Disease, that once challenged his own body and caused the death of his mother and brother early in their lives.

“My own experience has taught me that we’re a lot more powerful than we give ourselves credit for,” Jason maintains. “By slowly breathing life into our bodies, we can heal it.”

He believes that breathing deeply, especially when we encounter a sore spot, bathes the body in the substance it needs more than food and water – the most essential element of all – oxygen. And giving your pain a positive name puts deep-breathers in a better head space when it occurs.

“I’m cured,” Jason testifies. “I don’t take any medication and have never felt stronger in my entire life.”

Jason uses a soothing voice to talk clients through exercises, such as flexing the feet and hands to help with balance, or raising the arm straight up then bending toward the opposite side. “Stretch,” he instructs. “Pull in your belly button. Tighten your tush. Now, slowly exhale like you’re the slow leak in a balloon.”

Two D.A.P. clients who feel that deep breathing has improved their lung capacities are Tom and Jeff. “Forty years of smoking left me with bad lungs,” Tom says. But now he’s taking longer and more nourishing breaths, instead of the short clipped ones that were his former “normal” before taking the class.

“I feel much better now,” Tom says. “I’m more aware of how I’m breathing so pretty soon I’ll be breaking a sweat from all the activities I’ll be able to do.”

Jeff says he’s been attending the Chair Yoga sessions since his health insurance canceled his gym membership. He compares his former inactivity to how he feels now, “I went to the hospital and was on 15 medications. Now, I’m only on three. Anything that helps my breathing will help my stamina.”

That way, he can get out of his chair at home and enjoy an active life once again.

A garden of good health grows

Long-term survivors can be pretty tough cookies Tom Coleman, 78, and Darlene McBrayer, 82, have lived full lives with no regrets.

Not that there hasn’t been plenty to fret about. Both clients of Desert AIDS Project were diagnosed with HIV or AIDS in the 1990s and have experienced decades of illness, loss and dramatic change. “I lost four inches,” a tiny, curled Darlene says. “I used to be five-foot-seven.” And Tom went from singing, acting, modeling, and selling real estate to being nearly homeless.

Yet, he says, “I don’t feel like a lesser person than I was before. I’ve learned to accept what I cannot change and I don’t blame anybody for it.”

Darlene continues: “I think people have to do what they ordinarily do and just conduct themselves the way they would with any other disease.”

These amazing words are the perfect introduction to National HIV/AIDS Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day, this Friday on June 5. Tom and Darlene have seen all sides of the virus – medical, psychological, social, and economic – and have pulled through despite tremendous obstacles.

This Awareness Day was established to spotlight the present-day intricacies of survival while aging with HIV. It also stresses the importance of helping mature adults stay HIVnegative.

Today, Baby Boomers aged 55 and older, account for about 26% of the estimated 1.2 million U.S. residents living with HIV, according to the CDC. About 5% of new cases are among adults aged 55 and up. D.A.P.’s client base is “graying” as well. The average age of our clients is 51. Darlene is believed to be the oldest at 82. She and Tom carry on with dignity and grace even though it’s common for folks like them to stumble into depression, hopelessness, isolation, and a sort of PTSD called AIDS Survivor Syndrome.

Tom is a perfect candidate for AIDS survivor syndrome. He contracted the infection in 1997 when he was 56. But back then, he was leading a very active life. The Missouri native taught music at Cypress College in Orange County until he moved into entertainment by singing, modeling and acting. You can see him playing the “Singing Soldier” and hear him croon the Tomato Stomp in the 1978 cult classic send-up of Hollywood horror films, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.

Tom had been selling real estate when it happened. “Then, my life totally changed,” he says. “I got so sick I almost died. I became disabled, which I will be all my life because there’s no cure. I lost all the property I owned, which is why I’m living here. This is my home now; this one room.”

Tom lives in a studio apartment at Vista Sunrise on D.A.P.’s campus with Tizzy, his fiveyear-old golden retriever mix, a move which saved the two from homelessness. D.A.P. believes in the healing power of pets and encourages them at Vista Sunrise. In fact, there is even a dog park on the apartment complex’s property – donated by Michael Leppen in memory of a friend – so that residents can easily exercise their dogs.

A once-gregarious man, who was voted most popular by his college classmates, Tom is now very much a loner. “A lot of my friends died from this,” he reflects. “I’m not purposely isolating myself. It just sort of happened.”

An organization called Let’s Kick ASS (AIDS Survivor Syndrome), knows how things can ‘sort of happen’ to long-term survivors like Tom. Let’s Kick ASS is a grassroots organization of survivors, both positive and negative, and the lead sponsor of the second annual National HIV/AIDS Long-Term Survivors Awareness Day. The observance was established so the world can understand and prevent what sort of happens to those who have had their own personal journey in the AIDS pandemic.

“This year’s theme is ‘Every Survivor Counts’ because many long-term survivors feel forgotten and invisible,” the Let’s Kick ASS website says. “Now they are also dealing with poverty, ageism, and a lack of meaning and purpose because they (continued on next page)

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The mind, body, and spirit seem to work in harmony when people are gardening, says Janine Bell, Addictions Specialist at Desert AIDS Project.

There’s something about shoving your hands in the dirt to plant something and then nurturing it until it blooms that seems to put the soul at ease.

That’s the premise that Janine used when she established the Horticulture Therapy Group, which first met on March 6. Now, an average of eight D.A.P. clients meet for 90 minutes two Fridays a month.

They’ve planted about 30 varieties of flowers, herbs, and vegetables in a makeshift garden that Janine put together on the patio of D.A.P.’s campus. Edible pansies are showing their purple and white flowers. The smell of basil and lavender floats on the spring breeze.

Yellow buds surrounded by tiny white petals signal that strawberries are on their way.

“I want to call it the Wellness Garden,” Janine says, while cupping the strawberry buds. She buries her face in the German Thyme to bask in the smell of it, but she’s mystified why a group member decided to plant corn. There’s a dense patch of its tall, green leaves in the center of the garden. It’s all good, though, since the process of planting and cultivating is as important as the yield. “The goal of the group is to use gardening to lower depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges, and improve sleep without the use of more medication,” she says. “Of course, there are certain medications that clients have to take.

But we can use the mind, body, and spirit to create natural wellness through Horticulture Therapy.”

With that in mind, Janine gathered about $200 from D.A.P. to get the garden started with soil, pearlite, flowers, herbs, vegetables, and medicinal plants for essential oils such as citronella and lavender. “I brought a shovel, gloves, knee pads, etc., from home to donate,” Janine says. She got nearly two dozen tires that acted as deep planters once (continued on next page)

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Long-term cont. had the audacity to survive. #EverySurvivorCounts is a reminder that survivors do matter.”

Darlene certainly doesn’t mind standing up and being counted but it has become, admittedly, harder to do.

She contracted HIV in 1995 and has been a D.A.P. client for 19 years. Her HIV never progressed to AIDS and she’s rarely been deep-down sick. But the virus has made her more vulnerable to, and less capable of, managing other things – some of which are just part of aging. Family history meant osteoporosis was coming her way, but she’s experienced so much bone loss that her body doesn’t have enough space to accommodate her organs. She also has arthritis and picked up carpal tunnel syndrome from gripping the handles on her walker.

Then there’s her cellulitis, an infection in the deepest skin layer. She got it when she pricked her finger on a shopping cart, well before grocers began handing out disinfectant wipes for cart handles. The HIV meant she was hit hard by inflammation, swelling, redness, and pain that cellulitis brings.

Still, Darlene, the widowed mother of four and grandmother of three, has but one regret.

“I gave up relationships and that wasn’t smart,” Darlene says. “Just because you have HIV doesn’t mean you quit living. I don’t think people should give up sex. I did, and that was stupid.”

Tom doesn’t look back in anger, either. In fact, his ordeal has taught him something he didn’t know before: “I’ve been able to cope with a lot of negative things. I’m stronger than Hell!”

Gardening cont. they were cut open and painted by Damon Kumley and Chuck Bent of D.A.P.’s maintenance crew. The group then planted seeds and carefully watered.

Nature provided the sunlight. Soon, the green leaves and buds came up. Pretty soon there will be tulips, marigolds, sunflowers, purple clovers, squash, cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and okra to harvest from this tiny desert farm.

Already, clients have told Janine that gardening has brightened their moods and helped them manage stress. “Alongside of the physical work of planting, weeding, and watering,” Janine says, “clients meditate in the garden and enjoy the bees, birds, and butterflies that now visit.” Moreover, she’s noticed that Horticulture Therapy combats isolation and promotes social integration, education, cognitive thinking, creative problem solving, team building and a sense of accomplishment and self-worth among clients in the group. This happens during sessions as well as on their own time, when clients divvy up responsibilities or discuss clippings and supplies they might bring from home to their little oasis.

When it’s time to harvest, clients will have fresh ingredients for recipes and juices as well as dried flowers to decorate their Hope boxes.

“This all starts from one little seed and the benefits are endless,” Janine concludes.

Stress relief through Transcendental Meditation It was at about the 12-mile mark of David Brinkman’s daily 17-mile run when the stress began to dissipate and the clarity necessary to run a “Top 20 HIV/ AIDS Charity” like D.A.P. began to return.

But when a severe back injury put an end to the “extreme exercise” that supplied the dose of endorphins necessary to calm his mind, he needed a new stress reduction regimen. He chose Transcendental Meditation – more commonly known as TM – which has been learned by more than six million people of all ages, cultures, and religions.

David, who has been meditating for about five years, says, “Meditation is a way to access your own intuition by cutting through negative emotions that sometimes cloud our judgment,” David says. “For me, it’s a way to reconfirm that what I’m contemplating is not about ego, anxiety, or fear. What I choose to contemplate and what drives all of us at D.A.P. – staff and board – is serving humanity, right here in our own backyards. For me, when I can access that, everything falls into place.”

When he introduced TM to D.A.P. during the winter All-Staff Meeting, David told employees that meditation aligns with Building Connections, D.A.P.’s organizational philosophy of “connecting the best in me with the best in others.”

It’s D.A.P.’s way of encouraging all employees to be ever-present and judgmentfree in their daily interactions … with each other, with clients and patients, with volunteers, with donors … with everyone.

Twenty-eight D.A.P. employees jumped at the chance to learn TM. In fact, there was more demand than we could initially accommodate. David hopes to make the training to available to more staff – and to clients.

That’s because TM is particularly useful in an AIDS service environment according to the David Lynch Foundation, whose mission is to heal traumatic stress and raise performance in at-risk populations. Their target audiences for the benefits of TM are diverse, including school children, military veterans with PTSD, the homeless … and those living with HIV. Dennis Rowe, director of Transcendental Meditation Palm Springs and certified teacher, says “Transcendental Meditation is a simple and natural process that allows participants to experience a peaceful silence deep within the mind. They sit quietly with their eyes closed and use a mantra that allows the mind to settle down into a peaceful, relaxed state. During that time, serotonin, the chemical that maintains mood balance, increases. At the same time, cortisol, a stress hormone, decreases while blood vessels expand. As you meditate, you just experience deep rest.”

San Francisco AIDS Foundation’s Clinical Services Director Jeffrey M. Leiphart, PhD, uses TM with their clients and says “As stress rises, the immune system, which is already is under attack by the HIV in a person’s system, falters.

Anything the HIV-infected person can do to interrupt that and provide a sense of relaxation and safety will be immune-enhancing. TM is a great example of that.”

Norma, one of their clients, says “TM has helped me tremendously – not just in releasing stress but also increasing my number of T cells. And lowering my blood pressure to the point I no longer need medication.”

TM works by changing the blood flow to the brain, an effective way to manage anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure, and cognitive ability, many peer-reviewed studies show. This becomes a potent medicine to reduce cholesterol, congestive heart failure, stroke, metabolic syndrome or prediabetes, and pain. Meditation also unlocks potential for intelligence, creativity, and learning.

David says “For me, it’s simple … when you find an effortless way to reduce stress, you have an important tool for dealing with the stress of modern-day life.

I hope D.A.P. can bring that to our clients.”

Translators just 16 seconds away

Study confirms early treatment is best A major international study has found that HIV-infected individuals have a considerably lower risk of developing AIDS or other serious illnesses if they start taking antiretroviral drugs sooner rather than later. The Strategic Timing of AntiRetroviral Treatment study, (START), indicates that patients have better outcomes when they begin medicating when their CD4+ T-cell count—a key measure of immune system health—is higher, instead of waiting until the count drops to lower levels. Together with data from previous studies showing that antiretroviral treatment reduced the risk of HIV transmission to uninfected sexual partners, these findings support offering treatment to everyone with HIV. START is the first large-scale, randomized clinical trial to establish that earlier antiretroviral treatment benefits all HIV-infected individuals.

“We now have clear-cut proof that it is of significantly greater health benefit to an HIV-infected person to start antiretroviral therapy sooner rather than later,” says Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health. The NIAID provided primary funding for the START trial. “Moreover, early therapy conveys a double benefit, not only improving the health of individuals but at the same time, by lowering their viral load, reducing the risk they will transmit HIV to others. These findings have global implications for the treatment of HIV.” Desert AIDS Project CEO David Brinkman applauds Dr. Fauci (pictured), the 2009 recipient of the Steve Chase Humanitarian Award for Science and Medicine, for supporting the study. David says that START underlines what D.A.P. has been doing all along.

“We’ve been on a mission to get everyone in the Coachella Valley tested for HIV and get everyone, who tests positive, into treatment immediately,” David says. “START shows that those receiving early treatment when their CD4+ cell counts are in the normal range have healthier outcomes. In addition to that, today’s antiretroviral medications make patients 96% less infectious. So treatment, along with prophylactics such as condoms and PrEP, means we can end AIDS in our lifetime. This study confirms it.”

The START study, which opened widely in March 2011, was conducted at 215 sites in 35 countries. The trial enrolled 4,685 HIV-infected men and women ages 18 and older, with a median age of 36. Participants had never taken antiretroviral therapy and were enrolled with CD4+ cell counts in the normal range — above 500 cells per cubic millimeter (cells/mm3). (continued on next page) Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

The Coachella Valley is a very diverse place, attracting people who speak a variety of different languages.

In an effort to better serve this broad community, Desert AIDS Project now contracts with a West Coast firm that can translate English into about 200 different languages. Certified Languages International, which has offices in Portland, OR, and Phoenix, AZ, promises accurate translations even for delicate and complex conversations in the medical and pharmaceutical fields.

Now, D.A.P. can subscribe to interpreters translating conversations via telephone or live video chats. The company also translates documents, brochures, and ads so that D.A.P. patients and clients, who are not English speakers primarily, can understand what we do.

D.A.P. Bilingual Medical Case Manager Andrew Zuniga says interpreters can help non-English speaking clients and patients become full participants in conversations with healthcare providers and social workers and be more active in their own recovery and wellness.

“Translators give patients and clients a voice,” Andrew says.

“Sometimes patients just do as a provider says without asking questions or voicing their opinions.

Often times, it’s because of that language barrier. Having a translator breaks that barrier so patients can receive appropriate and honest care.”

Andrew says he believes the service can be useful in such areas as The Dock, our new sexual health center that treats and educates drop ins, many of whom are first-timers at D.A.P., for all types of Sexually (continued on next page)

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Early treatment cont.

About half were treated immediately, while the others were treated once their count fell to 350 cells/mm3. The study measured outcomes that included serious AIDS events (such as AIDS-related cancer), serious non-AIDS events (major cardiovascular, renal and liver disease and cancer), and death. Based on data from March 2015, 41 instances of AIDS, serious non-AIDS events or death were found among those enrolled in the early treatment group compared to 86 events in the deferred treatment group.

Additionally, risk of developing serious illness or death was reduced by 53 percent among those in the early treatment group, compared to those in the deferred group.

Interpreters cont.

Transmitted Infections.

Interpreters also may be needed in the medical clinic, the dental clinic, Behavioral Health services, Home Healthcare, or anywhere where intimate and complicated conversations between staff and clients take place.

CLI will provide support on an as-needed basis.

That means, whenever a staff member believes a translator can help, they call CLI. The CLI operator will assess the situation and find the appropriate translator.

Then the company will connect the D.A.P. staffer with that interpreter and the conversation begins. “That’s when the billing starts,” says Nick Valenziano, executive assistant to CEO David Brinkman. “It’s not a packaged contract. We only pay for what we use.”

AIDS diagnosis didn’t limit volunteer; it gave him focus A lot of ingredients went into making Christopher Christensen, volunteer with Get Tested Coachella Valley, the dedicated and giving man he is today.

Chris, 63, is a retired manager from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

He was on the team in the 1970s that developed electronic banking systems that made automatic teller machines and direct deposit possible. He is an accomplished baritone-bass, who also plays piano and trombone. His parents were deep into music, public service, and their church and they instilled those values into Chris and his four sisters.

The Christensens lived in the Oakland-San Francisco area where progressive thought, including on sexual orientation, has been celebrated as early the 1920s, he says. “When we saw smoke rising over Berkeley, we knew a free speech demonstration was going on and we went down to join the march,” Chris says.

Chris volunteered for a hepatitis vaccine offered by the local health department in 1980.

That’s when he believes he contracted HIV. That’s also when the activism, service, and spirituality he’d learned all his life found their focus.

“Back then, people reacted in a variety of ways when they got the news,” Chris recalls.

Many felt doomed so they drank, did drugs, and danced their remaining painful and frightening days away. “Rather than partying, I got involved in stopping the spread of AIDS,” Chris says.

Chris manned the hotline for Project Inform, a telephone answering service established in the 1980s to educate callers nationwide about HIV/AIDS. He also decided to “be the best patient I could be” finding out which foods and supplements could help him stay as healthy as possible. He states how fortunate he was to have early access to the best medications, even those he calls “toxic” because of their side effects. AZT’s curative powers were offset by the liver problems, lethargy, and digestive distress they gave him.

“Other drugs created neuropathy, losing the delicate sensation in the fingers and toes.

Sometimes they feel like they’re on fire with prickling numbness.” The affect can be permanent and Chris often feels like he’s wearing rubber gloves. Yet, Chris shies away from discussing his challenges with medications because he knows others have experienced much worse.

Despite his own illness, Chris continued supporting others. He retired early from the Fed in order to care for his ailing father. In January 2012, he moved to the Coachella Valley and began volunteering here at Desert AIDS Project.

“I offered to do HIV testing about three years ago,” he beams. “It turned out to be one the most satisfying experiences I’ve had in my efforts to end the spread of AIDS. Then along came Get Tested Coachella Valley. It fit me like a glove. I needed a platform from which I could fulfill my goal and Get Tested did that for me.”

Chris devotes 18 hours a week, plus weekends and evenings for special events, to testing for GTCV. The campaign is built on the premise that the spread of HIV can be stopped if everyone gets tested and those who are positive get treatment. Today’s HIV medications make patients 96% less infectious. That’s why the GTCV campaign wants to make voluntary HIV testing a routine part of all medical visits. The campaign also offers free, rapid, confidential tests at sites throughout the valley and has a mobile testing unit that goes everywhere, from street fairs to nightclubs, educating, testing, and linking area residents to care.

“We test and educate in remote underserved areas,” Chris says with pride. “We go into farmworkers camps and into halfway houses.

“All segments of the population need to know their status,” Chris affirms. “That includes people of color, youth. Even senior citizens need to be tested. If they’re sexually active they could be exposing themselves to HIV without knowing it.”

There are times, though, in the hours between GTCV assignments when Chris asks himself, “Why did this happen me?” The answer: Perhaps the fight against AIDS needed Chris Christensen on the front line.

Health Centers provide valuable care to the poor and uninsured U.S. releases a National HIV/AIDS Strategy Update On July 30, the national strategy for removing HIV/AIDS from the American health care landscape, updated to the year 2020, was lived-streamed to the world via Internet. The National HIV/AIDS Strategy was put in place by the Obama Administration in 2010 to identify goals and action steps needed to address the epidemic domestically. The Strategy Update resets outcomes and the plans to get there within the next five years.

Four of the most prominent goals for 2020 include: reducing the number of new infections; improving access to care and good health; reducing HIV-related health disparities; and achieving a more coordinated national response to the epidemic by the healthcare industry, housing, justice, business, and every day citizens – people like you and I, interested in helping create an AID-free future.

“This is an updated reminder for all of us to ‘think globally, act locally’ in ending this disease,” says D.A.P.’s CEO David Brinkman. “D.A.P. and our Get Tested Coachella Valley community partners are addressing the problem right here in our backyard by letting everyone know how essential testing is to ending this epidemic. We’re helping those who are HIV-positive to access care immediately because we know that once they get on the right medications, their viral load falls, helping make them 96% less contagious. One community at a time … that’s how we defeat AIDS nationally.”

The Strategy outlines action steps such as full access to tools such as PrEP, testing, education, prevention, and care given to populations hit hardest by the disease. Those groups include men who have sex with men of all ethnic groups, the American southern states, African Americans, Latinos, youth aged 13 to 24, intravenous drug users, and transgender women.

As one means of remaining HIV-negative, D.A.P. offers PrEP – a PreExposure Prophylaxis using Truvada, part of a medication regimen for many HIV-positive people. This means of helping prevent the transmission of HIV is made available at The Dock, the sexual health clinic opened at Desert AIDS Project in March, to help treat sexually-transmitted infections.

“What you see when you read the strategy is that with persistence and focus, and promoting the resources that are available, we can reach these targets,” David told The Desert Sun in a story that ran on July 30. Those targets include: 1. Increasing the number of people who know their status to 90% 2. Reducing the number of new infections by 25% 3. Increasing the number of people living with HIV who are receiving care to at least 90% The Strategy makes it clear that the U.S. has what it takes to defeat AIDS in the very near future. Infections can become a rare event and those who have it can get “unfettered access to high quality, life-extending care, free from stigma and discrimination.” That’s the vision of The Strategy. That’s the vision of D.A.P. Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

National Health Center Week Aug. 9 through Aug. 15 recognizes and gives thanks to the medical teams that treat the under-served populations of our nation in smaller settings right in their own neighborhoods.

These Community Health Centers, also known as Federally Qualified Health Centers, started about 50 years ago to serve lowincome patients largely in rural and urban areas. And studies indicate the centers have brought care to thousands while lowering costs and improving preventative medicine available to poor, uninsured and insured a like.

“National Health Center Week is your chance to speak out for your health center and the people and communities that rely on its services for healthy and productive lives,” according to the National Association of Health Care Centers’ Web site.

The NAHCC sponsors the awareness week.

Desert AIDS Project joined the ranks of America’s health centers in 2012 when it was approved as a Federally Qualified Health Center Lookalike. We serve about 2,570 patients. More than half, 1,753 of our patients, earn $18,000 a year or less.

Nearly 60 patients are homeless. And 315 of them are uninsured.

D.A.P.’s Grants Director Brande Orr says becoming an FQHC Lookalike helps us build the capacity needed to provide medical and social services to all our patients in need, regardless of their HIV status. For example, a patient’s partner, who has no infection, can establish care at D.A.P. and the (continued on next page) family can

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Health Center cont. share a medical home.

“That’s how it works,” Brande says. “It helps ensure we can continue to provide high-quality care to those with the greatest need. And by linking people at-risk for HIV and those currently battling HIV to treatment, we strengthen our role in ending the epidemic.”

Apparently, D.A.P. is in good, like-minded company because the Community Health Centers that are being applauded during the week have a track record of success in special areas of health care.

According to a study released in April by the NAHCC, health center patients had fewer hospitalizations and were three times as likely to receive breast cancer screening compared to nonhealth center patients studied between 2004 and 2008.

Additionally, uninsured health center patients had fewer out-patient and emergency room visits. They also were more likely to receive dietary advice than non-health center patients.

Costs savings were addressed in a January 2013 analysis of Community Health Centers. This study compared frequent users of health care treated in FQHCs to those seen outside FQHCs. The study found that lower rates of utilization, (office, hospital, and emergency room visits), among frequent users treated at health centers meant the cost of care was 20% less than it was for those treated elsewhere.

D.A.P. is pleased to be recognized as one of the nation’s Community Health Centers that maximizes care to those in need at minimal cost.

Triple-90 means the end of AIDS The biennial conference of AIDS specialists hailed dramatic progress in treatment and promoted the notion that the AIDS pandemic can end by 2030.

The International AIDS Society met from July 19 to July 22 in Vancouver, Canada. They called early treatment, prophylactic drugs, and wide-spread testing that makes everyone aware of their HIV status central to the demise of the disease.

The IAS officials espoused the “triple-90” goal. That’s the idea that AIDS will end 10 years after 90% of the world’s population knows their HIV status; 90% of those infected are getting anti-retroviral therapy; and 90% of those receiving treatment show undetectable viral loads.

“It is critically important that this effort be sustained,” says Dr. Julio Montaner, director of the B.C. Centre for Excellence in HIV-AIDS. “We need to be persistent and if we are persistent, we are going to see the end of the pandemic [by 2030].”

Dr. Montaner stressed to the media covering the conference that the world cannot afford to become complacent, even though medicine has made great strides since the disease appeared about 30 years ago. Back then, contracting HIV was a virtual death sentence. Sufferers were told to get their affairs in order and their friends, loved ones, and even medical providers watched them parish.

Since then, though, anti-retroviral therapy, ART, was introduced and can suppress viral loads so that many are rendered asymptomatic and their HIV is undetectable. The Strategic Timing of Antiretroviral Treatment, (START), study released in May found that early treatment lowers the risk of developing AIDS or other serious, AIDS-related illnesses. Previously, there had been concern that giving ART to asymptomatic patients might increase their risk of cardiovascular, liver, and kidney disease. The big news is this turned out not to be true.

Even mother-to-child transmission of the infection has been virtually solved.

This prompted one ranking IAS attendee to say that the progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS, from the grim forecasts of the 1980s and early ’90s, is “one of the great achievements in medicine and public health, honestly,” according to IAS President Dr. Chris Beyrer, a co-principal investigator of the Johns Hopkins Center for AIDS Research in Baltimore.

Desert AIDS Project’s Medical Director Dr. Steven Scheibel, agrees. “The next great achievement in defeating HIV and AIDS is to make sure testing and treatment gets to everyone. That means to everyone in prisons, small towns, inner cities, suburbs, houses of worship, night clubs, teen hangouts, and places where senior citizens meet,” Dr. Scheibel says. “Triple-90 is excellent. It’s achievable. But it’ll only work if everyone knows testing and treatment is meant for them, too.”

Exciting breakthrough in treating dysplasia Dr. Steven Scheibel, Medical Director at Desert AIDS Project, believes he’s found a new way to treat the conditions that can lead to anal cancer. The new therapy uses human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines in conjunction with an immune-boosting cream to kill anal dysplasia, which is often a gateway to anal cancer. This therapy promises to be an alternative to surgery as well as a way to address soaring rates of HPV and resulting dysplasia, which weighs so heavily on gay men and those with HIV. Dr. Scheibel, along with Dr. Praveena Yetur of LabCorp in Monrovia, wanted to treat anal dysplasia, which manifests as lesions in the anal cavity. These lesions can range from mild to severe and may morph into cancer. Working with a 55-year-old man with moderate to severe anal dysplasia, the patient was given imiquimod cream followed by injections of an HPV vaccine called Gardasil. By intervals of three to four weeks, the treatments were delivered over a two-year period.

“The patient was screened for highrisk HPV on a weekly basis and had multiple biopsies to identify possible dysplasia,” Dr. Scheibel says. “The result was no virus and a normal anal Pap smear.”

Treatment for HPV and anal cancer is essential at D.A.P. because they pose growing threats to many of our patients. HPV is the most common sexually-transmitted virus circulating today, with up to 75% of sexually active people contracting it

Upcoming Events in their lifetimes, according to Boston Medical Center’s website. Medical experts agree that HPV infection is even higher in people with HIV. And, although anal cancer is still relatively rare, its prevalence is growing fast, particularly among men who have sex with men (MSM) and those who are HIV-positive, says BioMedCentral. com. In fact, anal cancer among MSM with HIV is rising at 80 times the rate of the general population, Dr. Scheibel reports. Therefore, D.A.P. is busy searching for answers to HPV, anal cancer, and other clinical issues that challenge our patients.

HPV also is a key factor in head and neck cancer, for which we offer free screenings to clients, staff, and the general public once a year through the Annette Bloch Cancer Care Center. Dr. Scheibel leads a movement to increase clinical research performed under our roof and has made notable headway in the area of HPV and anal dysplasia.

The treatment has shown so much promise that Dr. Scheibel will present his findings at “HPV 2015,” the 30th International Papillomavirus Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, held September 17-21.

Researching disease and sharing results with international colleagues, is not new to the internist, who specializes in infectious disease and is AAHIVS credentialed as an HIV Specialist. Dr. Scheibel has done clinical (continued on back)

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September 17 - 22 Just Cause at Destination PSP Saturday, October 17 Desert AIDS Walk at Ruth Hardy Park Wednesday, October 21 Bartender Night at Coachella Valley Brewing Company Sunday, October 25 Under & Out at the Saguaro Palm Springs Saturday, October 31 Halloween Palm Springs on Arenas benefitting D.A.P. Friday, November 13 Dancing with the Desert Stars at the PS Convention Center Saturday, November 21 Tab Hunter Confidential Screening at Camelot Theatres Tuesday, December 1 World AIDS Day at D.A.P. Everyday Heroes at Camelot Theatres Visit desertaidsproject.org for more information on these and other events

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Breakthrough cont. research on HIV and AIDS for decades and was a researcher as well as co-founder and Associate Medical Director of the Community Health Network in Rochester, N.Y., in 1989. He’s been on teams whose work is cited in books such as “Public Health Behind Bars: From Prisons to Communities.” Dr. Scheibel has presented at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, the Symposium on Cell Biology of Virus Entry, and he’s traveled to such cities as San Francisco, Casablanca, and Yokohama, Japan, to appear at the International Conference on AIDS. Nevertheless, presentation at the HPV conference is special, says Rod Hagan, D.A.P.’s Clinical Research Coordinator: “If we could demonstrate a potential treatment for dysplasia that would prevent the need for the invasive surgical solutions that are out there, then this is huge. And getting the rate of HPV among our patients in line with that of the general population… yes, the potential of this is pretty exciting.”

Speak up during National Bullying Prevention Month

Thomas was in that figuring-it-allout stage of adolescence when he first enrolled in an East Valley middle school, right here in our lovely desert community.

But just as he was coming to grips with the way he talks, walks, and all the other things that make him, well, Thomas, he was pelted with paper wads, pencils, erasers, and homophobic jeers.

“People would push me in the hallways; call me faggot, call me gay,” Thomas, now a 19-year-old college student, says while fumbling with his keys, lost in the memory of those bad old days. “And I would keep walking like it didn’t even happen.”

The normally cheerful, outgoing boy says he became quiet and sullen.

He spent hours at home alone in his room, “getting emotional with myself,” wondering how people could be so cruel.

The teasing and taunting got so severe, Thomas began cutting himself with razor blades and even considered suicide. It was competitive cheerleading – with hours spent in the gym tumbling, stretching and weight training – that kept him away from the bullies and out of his own head. But when he contracted HIV at age 17, it was Desert AIDS Project that helped him survive the diagnosis and thrive.

Unfortunately, Thomas’ experience is not rare, says D.A.P. Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner Pam Grimes, adding “I’ve heard that story quite a few times from gay men who had to deal with bullying in high school and childhood.”

Since childhood harassment and abuse can go hand-in-hand with homophobia, HIV stigma, or both, we honor October as National Bullying Prevention Month. We also salute the work being done by Boo 2 Bullying, founded by D.A.P. volunteer photographer Dimitri Halkidis as a coalition of artists who believe every instance of bullying should be met with counseling for not only the person being bullied … but for the bully as well.

Of course, the unfortunate “poster boy” for being bullied for HIV was Ryan White, the Indiana teen who contracted HIV through tainted blood treatments and was jeered out of middle school because of his diagnosis. Amazingly, some 20 years later, that HIV stigma was still rearing its ugly head in another middle school as the members of 100 Women learned from the born-HIV-positive Paige Rawl who was the featured speaker at a free event the major donor group held

for National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day in March.

But, just as sports gave Thomas the last word and Paige expressed herself in Positive: A Memoir, Ryan became famous for the poise he displayed while facing the disease and bullying from nearly his entire home town of Kokomo. His name became synonymous for AIDS services as the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency (CARE) Act of 1990 laid the foundation for the largest array of programs that support people living with HIV/AIDS in the U.S. The Ryan White CARE Act celebrated its 25th anniversary Aug. 18.

Before victory, however, there is often pain.

And Pam says the trauma of bullying is deep, and real, and can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) if it’s not properly treated.

“Long-term bullying is no different than any other long-term act of violence against an individual,” Pam says, likening its mental scars to those caused by war or spousal abuse.

“Anytime you experience significant trauma in your life, you may have residual effects that can emerge later in life.”

The Behavioral Health Services team at D.A.P. can treat the symptoms of PTSD, such as depression, as they arise. But, in order to get to the root cause of the bad feelings, patients have to open up about the bullying and seek help. In fact, that’s Pam’s message to adult survivors of bullying as well as to children, who are in the throes of it.

“The best advice that I can give to anyone at any age is to not hold it inside. Instead, seek help,” Pam urges. “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, due to any trauma, can be dealt with through treatment.”

However, she says, no one will know what’s going on if you don’t tell. That’s why we say “Speak up about bullying. You never know who you may be helping.”

She finds care, acceptance, and career at D.A.P. Desert AIDS Project “not only saved my sanity, but my life,” Bridgette Picou says when recalling that harrowing time when she was first diagnosed HIV positive. D.A.P. became Bridgette’s salvation when she came to us as part of a small pool of female patients, and again when she joined our team as a Licensed Vocational Nurse, using D.A.P.’s Career Building workshop to start her new career.

Bridgette’s trials began in 2012. She was a 39-year-old mother and grandmother working in customer service and doting on her brand new grandson. And then, “after just one time with just one person,” she contracted HIV. “I thought I was going to die,” she says. “I was completely devastated. …You feel like it can’t be happening to you because you don’t engage in risky behavior. I’ve never had an STD and I went from 0 to 60 in a blink.”

HIV is an emotional disease

that can shred your health as well as your spirit. There are the physical changes that burden sufferers of any serious illness. But with HIV you also get fear, stigma, and sometimes discrimination. On top of that, Bridgette was under-insured. And she’s a woman – which brings up a whole wad of complications that puzzle many doctors, even specialists – outside our walls.

Bridgette went directly into treatment upon diagnosis.

However, she bumped into more than a few of those challenges along the way. Health insurance was a huge concern early on.

She found that she earned too much for insurance offered by Riverside County and not enough for a private plan.

Her medications were costly.

She had no idea how she would pay for them. There was no help in sight. Even the roll out of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, commonly called ObamaCare, didn’t begin until 2013 and 2014. She eventually found the AIDS Drug Assistance Program to help cover the cost of her meds.

Nevertheless, care outside our campus was as dicey as her insurance. Basically, she says no one knew what to say or to do

Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

with the HIV positive woman.

Providers were often fearful of her, hesitant to touch or even talk to her.

“While you’re seroconverting, (developing antibodies in response to the HIV infection), you get sick. My boobs grew a whole cup size and there were changes in the pH balance of my body.” In short, she says, “I dealt with men, who had no clue how to deal with women’s issues.”

As far as her emotional wellbeing is concerned, she didn’t get much help in that area, either.

“I was told I wasn’t going to die, but no one could tell me how I was going to live.”

A friend introduced her to D.A.P., where she found the medical and emotional support she needed that her insurance could accommodate, all under one roof. Her care was womenfriendly, even though only about 6% of D.A.P.’s patients are woman and she must seek gynecological care outside D.A.P. When Bridgette attended our 1st Annual Women’s Empowerment Day on May 7, she heard stories about the burdens of living with HIV from her sisters in the struggle. She was part of the cheering section of women reminding each other that HIV has not stolen their strength, intelligence, talents, (continued on next page)

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Bridgette cont.

beauty, motherhood, and grandmotherhood. She found the presentation Dr. Laveeza Bhatti gave on the different ways HIV and its medications behave in women when compared to men, to be a real eyeopener and particularly instructive.

But, before that, Bridgette had taken a good look in the mirror and took her life into her own hands. People had always told her she was pretty – but she thought her mind was her best asset.

Now, she decided it was her intellect that made her beautiful, so she entered the accelerated nursing program at Concord College in San Bernardino. She graduated in 2014, just two years after her diagnosis.

“I cried that first week of school,” she remembers.

Since she’s always been a nurturer, nursing was the perfect way to fulfill that need. So she soldiered on. Upon graduation, she connected with Valerio Iovino, D.A.P.’s Career Building coordinator, and her new life in medicine began.

“There’s an air of acceptance at D.A.P. that I haven’t found anywhere else,” Bridgette says, “and that makes a difference. If I can help give that back to someone, that’s amazing.

That’s my whole, entire goal.”

Can we ease strain of HIV meds on bones and kidneys?

Desert AIDS Project is participating in a study designed to test a drug that suppresses the HIV infection without threatening bone mass and kidney functions.

The name of the study is a mouthful. It’s called, “A Phase 3b DoubleBlind, Randomized, Switch Study to Evaluate F/TAF in HIV-1 Infected Subjects who are Viralogically Suppressed on Regimens containing ABC/3TC.” We’ll call it the Switch Study because it swaps one antiretroviral drug, Epzicom, for another, Trudava, in an effort to improve patient outcomes.

The Switch Study is one of five that D.A.P. has conducted in the past year. The studies represent a new function we’ll perform for the HIV community locally and worldwide. The studies we’ve recently embarked upon include Medication Therapy Management, a study on HIV, aging, and the brain, Switch, and a new treatment for anal dysplasia. We’re also testing a new treatment for a mutated strain of gonorrhea that’s resistant to current antibiotics.

“Research is a new direction for us,” says D.A.P. Medical Director Dr. Steven Scheibel. “We are facilitating tests on new medications and therapies that potentially will have a huge impact on everyone in the field.”

The Switch Study is one of Dr. Scheibel’s latest. It seeks to know if F/TAF, which is found in a modified version of Truvada, is better for patients than the ingredients ABC/3TC, found in Epzicom. Truvada also is the once-a-day Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) that people, who are HIV-negative, can take to reduce the risk of contracting HIV. The randomized, actively controlled trial will take place at multiple medical centers worldwide, including D.A.P. It includes 500 subjects with six subjects at each medical center. Dr. Scheibel’s team is selecting a half dozen HIV patients, who’ve been on antiretroviral therapy for at least six months, says Rod Hagan, D.A.P.’s Clinical Research Coordinator. These patients must have a very low viral load, less than 50 copies/mL, making their HIV undetectable.

Rod says the study, the first of its kind, is “double-blind” so neither the (continued on next page)

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Ease strain cont.

patient nor the sponsor of the study knows which drug each subject receives.

“Because I do the intake, explain the study, obtain signatures for the informed consent, and connect them to the provider who will perform the tests,” Rod adds, “I’m the only one who knows.”

D.A.P. and the other medical centers will establish the baseline for bone and kidney health at the beginning of the study, after 48 weeks, and at week 96 when the study ends.

Along the way, the centers will be looking to see how patients have tolerated the medications. Additionally, their bone mineral density will be measured at all three stages using a lowradiation dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, or DEXA scan.

Dr. Scheibel and his team are excited about opportunities to help HIV patients live well as a result of the answers that Switch and all of our research projects provide. Just the gonorrhea study alone would be a breakthrough for patients dealing with a very wide-spread sexually transmitted infection.

“There hasn’t been a new treatment for gonorrhea in the past 15 years,” Dr. Scheibel says.

“The benefits of effective new medications for our patients and the greater society would be huge.”

Our man in the Latino community Jose, one of D.A.P.’s longest-tenured staffers, says all the experience he gained in life goes into making him the community health educator he is today.

He is the U.S.-born son of immigrant farm workers, so he knows how that community rolls. He is a sober alcoholic with 25-yearsclean, so he knows how addictions can govern a life. He’s also a veteran substance abuse counselor, so he knows the rules of the road to recovery.

He uses all those tools to find just the right spot to inject some truth into the Latin community, and all others who are in danger of infection without strong intervention.

Jose joined D.A.P. in 1994. “I was working for a dual-diagnosis facility and I wanted to get more information on HIV,” he says. “A number of people in my counsel were HIV positive. I didn’t know much about it. I was naïve. I was afraid I wasn’t doing justice to those clients.”

“What works in Palm So he went on a fact-finding Springs may not work in mission that, in short, turned into Mecca or Thermal.” Jose says. a job in which he split his time between D.A.P. and the rehab “Even Hispanics in Palm facility. Nowadays, he’s all D.A.P. Springs aren’t the same as Although all communities are given Hispanics in Thermal.” equal time for testing, education, and prevention, all of them require a unique message that makes sense to them. “What works in Palm Springs may not work in Mecca or Thermal,” Jose says. “Even Hispanics in Palm Springs aren’t the same as Hispanics in Thermal.”

People in those agrarian East Valley towns may speak, read, or write little or no English. One of their biggest fears is deportation. The demand for gender conformity is fierce. Religion and culture are sometimes at odds with medicine as well as sexuality. “Some people believe God will take care of you, not medications,” Jose says. “And some think everybody has HIV. It only evolves in some people.”

Jose and GTCV counter these beliefs with direct action.

GTCV uses a bilingual, community-wide, multi-media education campaign to raise risk awareness and fight stigma. It includes Spanishlanguage television and radio; youth-oriented messages on social media; and Orange Parties – pizza bashes with a 15-minute presentation on

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

Jose cont.

HIV prevention, testing, and care.

Finally, there’s Jose and a crew of test counselors. They take GTCV’s mobile testing unit everywhere and engage residents in conversations that are friendly, culturally, and linguistically appropriate.

The testing unit and crew visited the Rainbow Youth Summit, IndioWIN Resource and Employment Fair, Migrant Health Conference, Celebrando el Bienestar y La Salud Mental de la Familia, El Grito Fiestas Patrias Coachella, Flying Doctors Event, Mecca Family & Farmworker’s Service Center Resource Fair, Tamale Festival, and FIND Food Bank Community Event.

In September, Jose added the Riverside County Jail in Indio to its list of mobile test sites.

D.A.P.’s Medical Director Dr. Steven Scheibel, who’s been a staff doctor and medical chief at two California lock ups, has long advocated routine testing within the penal system. It took Jose to get that ball rolling here at D.A.P. “The key is going where you’re needed and offering the service in a culturally-competent, nonjudgmental way,” Jose says. “It started slow at the jail, but it will gain traction once people know we’re here to help.”

Events Calendar Saturday, October 17 Desert AIDS Walk at Ruth Hardy Park

Wednesday, October 21 Bartender Night at Coachella Valley Brewing Company Sunday, October 25 Under & Out at the Saguaro Palm Springs Saturday, October 31 Halloween Palm Springs on Arenas benefitting D.A.P. Friday, November 13 Dancing with the Desert Stars at the PS Convention Center Saturday, November 21 Tab Hunter Confidential Screening at Camelot Theatres Tuesday, December 1 World AIDS Day at D.A.P. Everyday Heroes at Camelot Theatres Saturday, February 6, 2016 Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards Gala at the PS Convention Center Thursday, April 28, 2016 Dining Out for Life at participating restaurants across the Coachell Valley Wednesday, June 1, 2016 Queen of the Desert at the Renaissance Hotel Visit desertaidsproject.org for more information on these and other events

Employees were fired up for Desert AIDS Walk 2015

Right up to the eve of Desert AIDS Walk 2015, the excitement at Desert AIDS Project was palpable as employees pitched their final fundraisers in hopes of becoming the staff team to raise the most money for the 28th annual walkathon. Meanwhile off campus, Revivals’ team captains also rallied their troops for a final push to win, place, or show in the down-to-the-wire nail-biter.

“I think the excitement everyone showed this year was the greatest I’ve ever seen,” says Kelley Coe, Fundraising Events Associate, who organizes the Walk. “And how much everyone wants to be first, I think, is really cool. It brings us together as a friendly-competitive organization to do things that show our commitment and passion for our work and the people we serve.”

This year, D.A.P.’s five employee teams raised nearly $26,500, which is more than 8% of the $325,000 raised for the Walk thus far this year, Kelley says. Even she was surprised

by the scope of our employee’s efforts.

Perhaps staff raised so much because everyone went at it with ingenuity, enthusiasm, and an appeal to our collective sweettooth with lots and lots of sweets. Team Turbo, 22 nurses and other medical providers, sold chocolate chip cookies, macadamia cookies, and banana custard pie drizzled with fudge.

On Friday before the Walk, Team Turbo raffled off a giant basket of chocolate treats tied with a gilded ribbon. Their efforts brought in $1,060.

Speaking of giant, the Red Ribbon Warriors, eight Behavioral Health and Client Wellness workers, sold chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal cookies that were the size of Shaquille O’Neal’s fist along with homemade fudge. The Warriors raised $2,603.

Instead of sweets, the 17 members of These Boots Are Made for Walking – Case Managers, educators and housing specialists – went the savory route by selling food on Fridays that included loaded baked potatoes, bagels, and spaghetti with all the trimmings.

They sold donuts, too, and rang up $3,751.

Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

The Zuniga Brothers, Andrew from Case Management and Mario from Health Information Management, generated $1,075, but raised the bar much higher in terms of effort and heart. Mostly, the brothers sold spaghetti lunches on weekends. On Columbus Day, when the rest of D.A.P. was off, the brothers were cooking at Andrew’s kitchen in Banning and transporting the meals they sold from Ontario to Coachella and many points in between.

“We’ve seen how AIDS affects our community,” Andrew says, choking back tears. “Every dollar we raised goes to help people in need.” Mario swelled with pride when he told how their parents drove in from Brawley, nearly two hours, to help them make their noon deliveries. “My brother Mario and I both have a passion for what we do,” he says. “We both gave our time and energy to raise money for a cause that is so dear to our hearts.”

Nevertheless, it was the team from Revivals that had the magic bullet that shot them to the top of the staff leader board. “We raised $19,075.00 and counting,” boasts Charles Huff, Revivals Volunteer Coordinator. This places Revivals first among staff teams and the third team overall behind firstplace Partners For Life, who (continued on next page)

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AIDS Walk cont.

raised $38,490, and secondplace Patrick Stewart Properties, headed by D.A.P. board member Patrick Jordan who brought in $20,175.

“We did kind of have an edge, though,” Charles quips. “Palm Desert store Manager Robert Burke and his husband Michael De La Rosa were kind enough to do a matching grant of $10,000, making that number possible.

The announcement of the team and matching grant was posted in our volunteer newsletter and on the Revivals Facebook page. And people responded – volunteers and employees. Some employees moved their donations to our team for the matching grant,” Charles beams.

The employee team work nearly moved Kelley to tears. “I think it’s awesome,” she says, stopping to steady her voice.

“To see everybody getting so involved and having so much fun doing this, it gives me chills.”

Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the bacterium that causes gonorrhea, has developed a resistance to nearly all of the antibiotics used to treat it. Starting in the 1980s, the Center for Disease Control was forced to rule out one antimicrobial after another as they became less and less effective in the treatment of gonorrhea.

D.A.P. tests new treatment for drugresistant STI Desert AIDS Project is studying a new treatment for a very pervasive sexually-transmitted infection (STI) that’s now become drug-resistant.

Under the direction of Dr. Steven Scheibel, D.A.P. is studying the efficacy, safety, and side effects of a drug that combats Nesseria gonorrhoeae, the bacteria that causes gonorrhea.

Gonorrhea is the second most common STI and a major source of morbidity worldwide. Without treatment, it can cause infertility, cervicitis, proctitis, urethritis, pelvic inflammatory disease, and pharyngitis. Babies grow outside the womb in some women and the infection makes both genders more susceptible to HIV, according to GlaxoSmithKline, sponsor of the study. They go on to say: “The ability of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to develop resistance to antimicrobials has complicated the management of the disease, leading to an urgent need for new treatment options.”

D.A.P. is one of eight medical centers testing the new drug, called GSK2140944. The study invites 60 adults with gonorrhea infection to take a single dose of either 1,500-mg or 3,000-mg of GSK2140944. The study wants to

know if the smaller or the larger dose works best. The study last about a week with two scheduled visits. On the first visit, doctors will dispense the drug and gather baseline information from the study subject. A follow-up visit, called the Test-of-Cure visit, occurs between day 4 and 8 and determines the subject’s response to the drug. That includes success, failure, and adverse effects.

Although there are two scheduled visits, bad reactions to the new drug will be monitored until they are resolved.

So far, D.A.P. has enrolled three subjects in the study, to meet the six-subject goal for each site. Our clinical administrators are working on identifying additional subjects.

“Right now, though, we have more subjects than any other site and we’ve enrolled them quickly,” says Rod Hagan, D.A.P.’s Clinical Research Coordinator.

“We have a concentration of people in the Coachella Valley, who need support in fighting gonorrhea infection, so our services have to be cutting edge and we must be fast out of the blocks,” Dr. Scheibel states.

Although the name of the drug sounds like a chemical weapon from an (continued on next page)

Arsenic

1980

Silver Mercury

Penicillin abandoned as resistance grows

Indonesian pepper Extract from a S. American tree

1987

1940s Penicillin Some early treatments

1985 Gonorrhea outgrows tetracycline

First penicillin-resistant strain identified

Source: The Center for Disease Control Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project Protocol, Feb. 2015

Chromosomal resistance rendered a class of drugs, fluoroquinolones, ineffective in many cases 2007

New England Journal of Medicine: effectiveness of cephalosporins for treating gonorrhea crashing...

There are no other drugs to turn to 2011

2010 Dosage of ceftriaxone doubles as treatment failures are reported

2015 Desert AIDS Project tests GSK2140944 as a front-line treatment for gonorrhea

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Gonorrhea cont.

action hero comic strip, the problem and the need for an immediate answer is very real.

Effective treatment options for gonorrhea have diminished rapidly because of the emergence and worldwide spread of antimicrobial resistance to many drugs previously used or considered the first line. The study goes on to list six drugs that patients are taking to almost no effect.

“Azithromycin was the big tah-dah,” Rod says. “But N. gonorrhoeae has become resistant to it and there’s nothing else in the pipeline. Without a new treatment, it could be like it was at the turn of the century again and it could be fatal.”

D.A.P. is trying to keep that from happening. We’re participating in this study and several other clinical trials that aim to improve the lives of patients and clients living with HIV. The search for a new antimicrobial is one of five that D.A.P. has conducted in the past 12 months. Those studies include Medication Therapy Management, a study on HIV, aging, and the brain, a study that searches for a milder antiretroviral that we’ve called Switch, and a new treatment for anal dysplasia. These studies represent a new function we’ll perform for the HIV community here and abroad. Beyond those in disadvantaged communities in the Coachella Valley, many others — nationally and globally — will benefit from our findings.

“Our search for a new treatment for this drug-resistant strain of gonorrhea is one of the most important things we can do,” Dr. Scheibel says. “We have to get out in front of this challenge because it threatens us locally and globally.”

Rob Roy Conklin brings good music to D.A.P. Robert Roy Conklin has an almost spiritual connection to his musical instrument, the Great Highland bagpipes. Just listen to the way he talks about the instrument he knows as a sometimes temperamental friend: “The bagpipes have three drones that hum,” Rob says, fingering the air near his chest. “The main chanter, she screams the tune out. She’s not flexible. She won’t recognize you if you don’t accommodate her. You have to change with her. If not, she’ll embarrass the hell out of you. If her needs are met, she’ll sing to the gods.”

Rob was getting advanced training on the bagpipes, learning new ways to make “her” sing, when he was introduced to Desert AIDS Project in 2009. It was a time of transcendence: A time for change with a hint of fear of the unknown that change can bring.

It was a time when D.A.P. added joyful lyrics to a melancholy tune droning on in Rob’s life.

By then, he was already a longterm survivor having contracted HIV in 1983. He was studying Advanced Bagpipes at University of California, Riverside, when he came across a D.A.P. outreach worker at a local Pride Parade. He told the staffer he needed help.

He was the live-in manager of a sober living facility, which was closing and he had nowhere to go. Within just a few months, Rob was placed in a Vista Sunrise apartment here on our Palm Springs campus with rent modest enough for a music student to afford.

He’s been a D.A.P. stalwart ever since. Rob volunteers over a thousand hours here most notably, working in the computer lab in the Client Wellness Services wing from 10 AM to 2 PM on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. He played his bagpipes at the premier of the Coffee House Showcase last summer. He opened the bimonthly client variety show with one of his favorite tunes, Amazing Grace. He’s also played numerous engagements around the Coachella Valley including the Palm Springs Walk of Stars celebrations.

Rob began his romance with the bagpipes in 1991. The clarinet had been his instrument until he realized bagpipes were always in demand, even though few people know how to handle her. Since then, their relationship has been set in, shall we say, A-major.

Rob, 56, is a lifelong musician who grew up in a musical household in Chula Vista, a coastal city in San Diego County.

Rob was a middle child of six in this Irish Catholic family. His mother, Charlotte, played piano.

Rob warmly recalls her giving him lessons when he was as young as (continued on next page) six.

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Rob cont.

“I remember mom in her apron and sticky fingers leaning over me saying, ‘Here-here, this is how it’s done,’ ” Rob says. “Then she left me to learn while she cooked.”

Rob’s father, Richard, the more musically versatile of the couple, played stand-up bass, guitar, and piano. In fact, by the time Richard was 13, he was playing dances and weddings in his own band.

Rob gravitated to the clarinet and to San Francisco, where he lived from 1982 to 2006. He was there when the AIDS pandemic touched down, turning the city into ground zero for a ruthless new disease. It was as if the Black Plague of Europe hit the City By the Bay. “It was a horrible time,” Rob says, adding that he played clarinet at many memorials including the service for Jon Sims, who founded the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. Sims also established the Gay Freedom Day Marching Band and Twirling Corps.

The latter is said to be the first openly-gay marching band in U.S. history. Rob was the drum major for seven years, as the previous four had died. “There were a lot people who didn’t go to memorials because you’d see people at an event; then, the next moment, they were gone. “I played some services where it was me, the minister and five dead guys,” Rob recalls. “Their families didn’t come to their funerals.”

Rob doesn’t speak much about his own turn with HIV. Those are pearls of wisdom and pain that he is slow to share. “I don’t want to

focus on the worst. I focus on the best and it will transcend.”

Transcending hard times explains how he moved from the clarinet to the bagpipes. After studying at the California Institute of the Arts and California State University, Northridge, Rob had a solid musical career. Then, concerts dried up. So, he taught for a while. It was 1990, and he was searching a union database for jobs for horn players when he realized there were plenty of listings for clarinets and plenty

of musicians ready to take those gigs. However, calls for the Great Highland bagpipes had few, if any, takers.

So, Rob learned the bagpipes.

His father Richard encouraged him, saying there had been some pipers in their family. And, with a name like Rob Roy Conklin, he

probably had the knack for it.

Historically, though, bagpipes date back to ancient Egypt.

They migrated from Africa through Eastern Europe with the Romans and were spoken of on the British Isles in the Canterbury Tales of 1380. The Scottish adopted bagpipes as their national instrument, and, with a few modifications, she often accompanied warriors into battle. In World War II, Germans were said to have heard the bagpipes and lamented: “Here come the women from Hell!”

Still, the bagpipes are an almost spiritual instrument that goes straight to the soul.

Rob calls them symphonic because of the interplay between the drone’s melody and the beat played by the chanter. When the Holy Scale cord progression is played on bagpipes in A-major, the sound is so haunting that some players of old were tossed in prison, Rob says. “It goes straight to the third eye chakra,” Rob instructs, pointing to the center of his forehead, the place in charge if intuition, imagination, and wisdom.

“Anything in there,” he says, meaning raw emotions, “is coming out.”

Visit desertaidsproject.org for these and other stories of your impact.

JANUARY2016

Dr. Steven Scheibel welcomes Dr. David Morris – so that he can continue with research at D.A.P. When Dr. David Morris (left) joined us on Monday, January 25 as our new Medical Director, he made it possible for Desert AIDS Project to continue moving into research in a bigger way, under the very able direction of Dr. Steven Scheibel (above), who has become our first-ever, full-time Director of Research.

While he was D.A.P.’s Medical Director, Dr. Scheibel also maintained a substantial patient caseload. Dr. Morris will do likewise. Although Dr. Scheibel will continue to see some of his current patients, others are in the process of transitioning either to Dr. Morris or to Nurse Practitioner Rodney Fox for their care.

“This is a really significant change because it allows D.A.P. to more fully undertake important research,” Dr. Scheibel says. “And the findings from that research will be useful, not only to patients here at D.A.P. but others around the world as well.”

As a part of his patient care, Dr. Scheibel will continue to perform anoscopies, which are examinations that diagnose abnormalities in the anal canal that can lead to cancer. These abnormalities, which include anal dysplasia, are huge health concerns for our patients and clients.

Accordingly, Dr. Scheibel presented some of his current research for new treatment of anal dysplasia in September at HPV 2015 – the 30th International Papillomavirus Conference – in Lisbon Portugal.

Dr. Scheibel has other, upcoming projects that are equally exciting.

Sex-Workers on PrEP (“SWOP”) Study In conjunction with co-investigators from UCLA, this study will seek to place HIV-negative sex workers on PrEP – Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis – and to treat HIV-positive sex workers, thereby reducing the spread of HIV. It also provides these sex workers with a medical home to address all their healthcare issues, such as regular STI screenings, addiction counseling, and behavioral health services.

Zostavax Vaccination This proposed study will look at the immune responses in HIV-positive patients that had been vaccinated with Zoster vaccine.

Anal Cancer Screening for Women In conjunction with co-investigators from UCLA, this study will look at women who are at high risk for anal cancer. The goal is to develop better screening tools that help to prevent invasive cancers.

Therapeutic Perianal Immunizations with Gardasil (continued on back) This is original research being developed in Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

Q&A with Rodney Fox, NP As a Doctor of Nursing, Nurse Practitioner Rodney Fox came to Desert AIDS Project from a healthcare center in Atlanta called Pride Medical, where his daily practice included caring for both the LGBT community and those living with HIV or AIDS. In addition to putting his knowledge and experience to work as an Adjunct, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., Rodney has also practiced emergency room and prison care as well.

We asked Rodney three questions, to get his view of Desert AIDS Project and how we provide care.

Q: What do you think is the greatest driving force today at Desert AIDS Project?

Rodney Fox: At D.A.P. and across the nation, more patients have access to care due to the Affordable Care Act. As a nurse practitioner, I love the idea that more patients can see us and get the treatment they need, whether it’s for primary care or for HIV-specialty services. It only makes sense that D.A.P. continues expanding to meet the needs of so many who may have been previously under-served or not served at all.

Q: Why did you choose AIDS care as your specialty?

RF: Over the years, I’ve had a number of experiences that made a profound impact on me in providing (continued on back)

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Scheibel research cont. partnership with UC Riverside School of Medicine, with Dr. Scheibel as the Lead Investigator. The study uses high-resolution anoscopy (HRA) to screen for anal cancer and anal dysplasia in HIV infected and uninfected men who have sex with men.

“As excited as I am to move more fully into research, I’m going to miss the regular contact with my patients who will need to transition for their care,” said Dr. Scheibel. “That’s why I’m doing whatever I can to make the hand off between me and these two highly qualified medical providers as warm and smooth as possible.”

Rodney Fox cont.

HIV and AIDS care. For instance, in Atlanta I cared for an AfricanAmerican woman, who had been recently diagnosed with AIDS. She had been given printed materials but no oral education about her disease.

When she started crying, I learned that she was illiterate, so none of those materials meant anything to her. That was a powerful, “don’t take anything for granted” moment for me.

Q: How has your role as a HIV/ AIDS medical provider changed over the years?

RF: First and foremost, I believe I’m an educator and coach to my patients, to help them more fully understand their disease. Years ago, the AIDS care community didn’t think long term. Today, patients have a near normal life expectancy. So, we’re seeing lots of issues related to the normal aging process, like heart problems, high cholesterol, hypertension, and much more. So, we’ve gone from concentrating our energies on keeping people alive and comfortable for as long as possible, to helping them understand ALL of their health needs over the long term – not only their HIV or AIDS – so they can live the longest, healthiest lives possible.

Expanding D.A.P. services for even greater clinical care and research If change is progress in search of perfection, as Winston Churchill said, D.A.P. has made progress in a big way in 2015 … and we have even greater plans for 2016 and beyond.

“Thanks to new advances in treatment, improved access to care through health reform, and the incredible success of PrEP, PreExposure Prophylaxis, as an HIV prevention method, the end of AIDS is finally in sight – and D.A.P. aims to be a part of it,” said David Brinkman, CEO of Desert AIDS Project.

Even though our mission remains resolute in providing wraparound, “medical home” services for the care of those living with HIV, our primary care services are available to all, including those who are HIV-negative. While D.A.P. accepts a variety of insurance plans – Medicare, Medi-Cal, a variety of Covered California plans under “Obamacare,” and more — our primary concern is that anyone needing our services can access them, regardless of ability to pay.

Our plans to continue making that happen include improving our clinical services, as well as doing research that could benefit not just the Coachella Valley but have global impact as well.

Central to it all of this happening is the elevation of David Hersh, MD to a brand-new positon at D.A.P. as our very first Chief Clinical Officer (CCO.) As Chief Clinical Officer, Dr. Hersh will add leadership of D.A.P.’s Social Services Department – case management and an array of services including food and housing – and Quality Improvement.

Dr. Hersh came to D.A.P. from San Francisco, an ongoing epicenter of the epidemic and a community that helped script the early response in AIDS care.

There, he was Medical Director of Substance Use Treatment Services for the San Fransico Department of Public Health, Community Behavioral

Health Services, overseeing a number of programs spanning psychiatry and substance abuse treatment.

Dr. Hersh is a medical doctor with degrees from Johns Hopkins, the Rutgers University School of Medicine and Yale University. He’s a former internist who worked closely with our own Dr. Steven Scheibel to break down “silos” that often separate medicine from mental health. Dr. Hersh promotes integrated, holistic care because emotional challenges can lead to serious physical complications and vise versa.

“Can we really expect a severely depressed patient to take their HIV meds regularly, or someone’s mood to improve if their diabetes is out of control or they are experiencing chronic pain?”

Hersh asks. That attitude informed Dr. Hersh’s support and expansion of nontraditional forms of care provided by the Community Wellness Services Center, such as acupuncture, yoga, Reiki, workforce re-entry and educational programs, as well as a number of therapy and support groups.

Watch for even more in 2016 at Desert AIDS Project, as we continue adding key staff to our medical clinic – like new Medical Director Dr. David Morris and Nurse Practitioner Rodney Fox, Ph.D. – and ramping up our research studies under the ongoing leadership of Dr. Steven Scheibel.

“We’ve got a great staff already at D.A.P. and I look forward to seeing how we can expand and improve our care and research even more,” Hersh concluded. “As someone who remembers a world before effective HIV treatment, it’s been so satisfying to be even a small part of helping people live healthier lives, despite the virus. I can’t wait to see an end to this, once and for all.”

Broadway comes to Palm Springs Snippets of Broadway – literal snips of fabric from costumes, worn in famous productions on The Great White Way – have been sent to the Desert AIDS Project campus where they are being transformed by D.A.P.’s quilting enthusiasts. They will become brand new “Broadway Quilts” as two king-sized canvases of textile art, worked by the Quilting with Pinkie group, which meets every Monday from 10:00 AM to 2:00 PM at Desert AIDS Project.

Each of these Broadway Quilts, scheduled to be finished by summer, will be auctioned or raffled to benefit D.A.P. on December 1, in commemoration of World AIDS Day. “It’s going to tell a great story,” Larry Edwards – better known locally to many as “Pinkie Meringue Shimmer” – said as he opened a new box of fabric. “The people of Broadway now know we’re here making something wonderful with their fabrics,” he beams. “It sort of brings the two communities together. It’s great.”

Quilting and other needlecrafts, like knitting, crocheting, and embroidery, have been a part of the fabric of D.A.P.’s Wellness Services for many years. A staff member, who thought these activities requiring movement and dexterity of the fingers might help ease the hand tremors and neuropathy that sometimes accompanies HIV infection, suggested a group that came to be known as Stitch in Time.

Today, the quilters are wondering aloud, which piece went into a costume worn

by Glenn Close, who plays the larger-than-life Hollywood has-been in “Sunset Boulevard,” or by Jennifer Hudson as the sexy siren Shug Avery in “The Color Purple.” They try to guess how the slinky, hand-painted fabric was used in the 2015 “Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.”

Mostly, though, the group is amazed that D.A.P. volunteer and New York costumer designer Philip Heckman has the connections to make this all happen.

“It says a lot about your reputation in the industry that they would send all this,” says quilter John Luckett.

Philip worked in New York for 25 years. He was nominated for an Emmy for his work on the soap opera “As the World Turns” and designed for the “Tony Awards.”

Off- Broadway, he designed for the musical “Bedbugs!!!” He smiles when he says that.

Philip called on designers, wardrobe supervisors, fabric vendors, and costume shops working on Broadway to donate to the project. And donate, they did.

“It’s all because I asked them,” Philip says. “I was trying to figure out what I could contribute to Quilting with Pinkie. So, I thought of a Broadway Quilt to raise money for D.A.P.” George Nasci-Sinatra, RD coordinator, says the Broadway Quilts will not only raise the profile of Pinkie’s close little group but also raise money and awareness of HIV and D.A.P., in much the same way the AIDS Memorial Quilt, sponsored by the NAMES Project Foundation, did in 1987.

Every week, the quilters prepare for the colorful surprises that the boxes have in store for them. There were recent “oohs and ahs” as intricately designed African prints in various shades of purple emerged from a box (continued on back) Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

HIV and its care pose special challenges to dental health Our dentists, Dr. Ryan Yamashiro and Dr. Daniel Jo, both graduates of Loma Linda University School of Dentistry describe special challenges when it comes to dental care for patients living with HIV And AIDS, and what they do to help.

How important is good dental hygiene for those with HIV? Dr. Jo: In general, it’s really important for any patient to have good oral hygiene. But yes, some of the medications our patients take can create complications of the mouth. If you don’t have good dental hygiene you can experience more problems such as gum disease and cavities than a person who isn’t HIV positive might face.

What are some of the oral challenges faced by people living with HIV? Dr. Yamashiro: Some of the patients have candidiasis, (a fungal yeast infection also known as thrush.) They take a lot of medications so decay can be accelerated with them. Many also suffer from dry mouth due to some of the medications they’re taking and that also can cause decay. They also have problems with dry mouth in general.

They just don’t really salivate that much and it can cause a lot of problems. We try to help manage all of that with them.

How much of that do you see here at D.A.P.?

Dr. Jo: It’s a pretty common problem.

It can affect their condition in terms of their HIV. That goes back to oral hygiene. In general, it’s important to have a healthy oral environment by maintaining the teeth they have, avoiding gum disease, and trying to keep them as healthy as possible.

Are there any changes in the (continued on back)

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Broadway cont. sent by Angie Kahler, assistant designer for, you guessed it, “The Color Purple.”

There also was a bolt of black and white silk from “Annie Get Your Gun.” Philip explained there will be 64 complete, three-inch squares in the quilt.

Some of its swatches are squares from one piece of fabric. Others are made up of two triangles of contrasting fabrics sewn together to make the square. For example, there is an elaborate batik triangle of black, gray, and navy coupled with a triangle of yellow with white polka dots. There’s also a black lace square with charcoal eyelets sitting next to a bit of orange and brown hounds tooth.

Phillip explained how the triangles and squares will look as he pinned early parts of the quilt to a sheet of muslin hanging in the Duane Johnson Group Room where the quilters meet and work. He also placed a diagram on the sheet that shows how the sequence of triangles and squares will create diamond shapes throughout the quilts once they’re completed. Take a few steps back and tilt your head … you’ll see the pattern of diamonds inside diamonds next to diamonds suddenly reveal themselves.

“I have to say, in the beginning I didn’t know what to expect,” George says. “But now I’m overwhelmed by all the New York designers, and costumers, and fabric companies that all want to be a part of this. Recently, some of the actors are hearing about this and they want to send autographed pictures and playbills to go with the quilts. This is growing into a beautiful project between Palm Springs and New York City. It’s amazing.”

Dental Care cont. dental clinic that we ought to know about?

Dr. Jo: Now that we’re a full Federally Qualified Health Center, it’s good for our patients and our workflow as well. The biggest change is we’re growing: They brought me in as the second full-time provider; we have another part-time hygienist; we have more assistance at the front desk. It’s good. We’re starting to scale up so we can provide more services to more patients. In terms of that, I think we’re on the right path.

Time-tested, tried-and-true: the condom has been useful for centuries

Fifty-three thousand, three-hundred, and fifty-two.

That’s the number of safer sex kits Desert AIDS Project volunteer Gene Touchet has built since he joined our Condom Club in 1998.

That’s 53,352 opportunities to prevent the spread of sexually transmitted infections, (STIs), and unintended pregnancies in D.A.P.’s service area. That’s 53,352 chances for our family, friends, and neighbors to enjoy life without anxiety, shame, or fear of disease.

For Gene, however, it started out as just a way to socialize and stay active when he retired. He continued with the Condom Club for 18 years because, in addition to providing a much-needed service, membership in the club is, well, fun. “There are a lot of dirty jokes and strange stories told when we get together. There’s a lot of laughter, which is a morale booster for me,” Gene says, adding with a chuckle. “The donuts are good, too.”

With February designated National Condom Month, we thought this was a great time to highlight this group that was established in 1995 and still meets on the third Tuesday of each month here at Desert AIDS Project. In many ways, the Club is reflective of D.A.P.’s origins as a grassroots, all-volunteer response to helping those with HIV and AIDS. In the U.S. each year, there are nearly 20 million new cases of STIs, about half of which are in teenagers and young adults, according to the American Sexual Health Association.

STIs often have no symptoms, which is why using condoms is important each time someone has sex. Numerous studies have shown the value of condoms in reducing transmission risks with a host of STIs, including HIV, HPV, and chlamydia. Using condoms is one of the smartest and simplest things

we can do to protect our bodies. It’s estimated that 18 billion condoms were used globally in 2015.

Todd Watkins, a community health educator at D.A.P. who manages the Condom Club, agrees. While condoms are 98-99% effective in preventing the spread of HIV, they were the precursor to PrEP – short for Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis – which is a daily pill that helps keep HIV-negative people from contracting HIV. Widespread use of both prophylactics could end the spread of AIDS in our lifetime, Todd explains. Learn more at The Dock, D.A.P.’s sexual wellness clinic devoted to education and treatment of STIs, which is soon to mark its first anniversary.

Desert AIDS Project distributes between 3,700 and 5,200 condoms a month to about 52 bars, resorts and other establishments throughout the Coachella Valley. The Condom Club, which has more than a dozen regular members, assembles safer sex kits, including a condom, lubricant, and an insert with instructions and resource information.

Distributing to schools is rare, but it happens from time to time. “When I go to schools that allow it, I bring male and female condoms,” Todd says. “The students are often curious about the female condom, so I’ll open a package and show it to them, explaining how it’s used.”

Sharing knowledge of sexual health and distributing condoms is very important to Gene Touchet. Even though he started out with the Condom Club as a lark, he stayed because it was the right thing to do. As Gene says, “I don’t have a lot of money to give, but I have time and this certainly needs to be done.”

A memorial to a loved one = a new lease on life for D.A.P.’s Computer Lab For years, D.A.P.’s Computer Lab has been providing a connection to the digital world for clients who may not have access to computers or the Internet from home or elsewhere.

While the lab’s computer equipment was serviceable enough, it certainly wasn’t latest generation or stateof-the-art. But much of that has changed, thanks to Harold Clumeck’s generous donation of $30,000.

“With his generous gift, we were able to add six new computers, doubling the number previously available to clients. The printer and fax machines have been updated and we’ve got 24-inch monitors that have replaced the old 19 inchers,” says D.A.P.’s Information Systems Manager Matt Farokhmanesh. “And the computers we already had have been tuned up to match the faster processing speed of the new ones. Mr. Clumeck has given the older computers another five years to run and provide good service for our clients.”

Asked what’s different about the new and refurbished machines, Matt beams, “They’re faster!” A simple answer, delivered with a big smile, is the one many techies have learned is often best, rather than rattling off things few people but them understand anyway. Although Matt looks at the new lab and sees the Core I-5 4590 versus the old Pentium E5300 and how the former outperforms the latter, Harold looks at them and sees something else altogether.

Beyond the computer lab, due to reopen after renovations April 8, Harold sees a fitting memorial to his life partner, Jerry Behrend. The two met at the Castro Lions Club in San Francisco in 1990. Harold was a speech pathologist with the Veteran’s Administration hospital and Jerry, former military, was a systems analyst with a local firm. Jerry began in the early days of computers, back in the 1960s, and was nicknamed The Firefighter for his ability to solve seemingly impossible problems on this complex and new apparatus, according to Leroy Olson, Jerry’s old work buddy from “back in the day” at Consolidated Papers in Wisconsin Rapids, WI. The right-brained Jerry with his acute spatial awareness and the left-brained Harold, whose strong suit was language, were a perfect yin-and-yang fit. After a few months of dating, Harold realized, “I couldn’t imagine life without him.” The two were together for 20 years.

Although they’d lived in its epicenter when the disease was at its most vicious, HIV and AIDS barely touched Harold and Jerry’s lives. “I remember the first cat I adopted was from a fellow who was HIV positive,” Harold recalls. “At the time, AIDS patients were told to get rid of their pets because of toxoplasmosis.”

Toxoplasmosis is an infection caused by the Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) parasite found in the intestines of cats. It can be transferred to humans with compromised immune systems causing brain lesions, called toxoplasmic encephalitis. Anti-retroviral therapy sometimes taken with anti-T gondii prophylaxis, have pretty much eliminated that threat.

AIDS did not separate Jerry from Harold, heart disease did. “He had serious cardiovascular complications and two open-heart surgeries, then more vascular problems. They were repaired in 2010 and he was good to go,” (continued on back) Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

D.A.P.’s nutritionist prescribes good food for good health The health care world, including Desert AIDS Project, looks at nutrition as a key part of good health. That’s why Gustavo Wong, certified dietitian and exercise physiologist, joined us about a year ago as yet another facet of D.A.P.’s holistic approach to the care of our patients and clients.

Food is medicine for all of us, including those living with HIV. “As a way of eating to live a healthier life, I recommend less processed food while choosing more natural items from a specific array of food groups,” Wong says. “Those groups are vegetables and fruits as good sources of carbohydrates, along with protein from meats or beans, and healthy fats.”

A primary guideline to healthier eating Wong recommends is the “plate method.”

The basic idea is to have half of the plate devoted to non-starchy vegetables with a quarter for proteins and a quarter for carbs and sugars. However, Wong does tailor recommendations to the needs of individual clients. For example, some foods aggravate gastro-intestinal systems, announcing their presence in the form of diarrhea, constipation, or nausea.

“Fats generally are the culprits,” Wong says, “So I want to make sure clients don’t have GI problems. If they do, I adjust their diet accordingly.”

The non-starchy veggies on half the plate include salads, asparagus, beets, mushrooms, broccoli, cucumber, and spinach. Denser carbs that make up a smaller part of the plate include pasta, squash, sweet potatoes, bread, and corn.

Beans, red meat, chicken, or fish round out the plate with protein. On colder days, some people prefer to have vegetable (continued on back)

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Clumek cont.

Harold reflects. “We were on the edge of selling our house in San Francisco and moving here to Palm Springs to retire… when suddenly, he died.”

As Harold finished the business of selling the house, moving here, and getting involved socially, he established the Jerry Behrend Computer Learning Center at the Mizell Senior Center before making this gift to D.A.P.’s Computer Lab. “Doing this now is a way of dealing with the grief,” Harold confessed.

But Harold’s loss and pain has turned into hope for scores of clients, who use the computer lab every week.

“Everything you use your computer for at home, clients have here,” says Ray Robertson, who manages the Community Wellness Services Center where the Computer Lab and myriad other client programs are housed. “For some, the Computer Lab is their only access to technology.”

For these clients, the lab is a convenient place to apply for jobs or for Cal Fresh, California’s food stamp program. Some of them look into returning to school while others do homework. Still others might just answer emails. “Whatever they need to do on the computer, they can do here. A lot of our clients would be lost without our lab,” Ray says. “Thanks to Harold and this wonderful gift, we can give them even better technology resources.”

Nutrition cont. soup, as a way of incorporating those all-important vegetables into their diet.

For breakfast, Wong recommends such items as cereal with nut fiber, such as flaxseed meal, or by adding some bran. Regardless of which meal, we all still need the foundation of “macronutrients” – vegetables, carbs, protein, grains, and healthy fats – to help build a strong immune system.

And taking a lot of supplements is no substitute.

Neither is processed food.

Wong insists that the nutrients that have often been removed, limited, or destroyed in food processing are essential for all of us.

D.A.P. doctors keep patients on the HIV Care Continuum Think about this on March 30, National Doctors Day: Desert AIDS Project has 10 full- and part-time physicians participating in the HIV Care Continuum.

D.A.P. doctors and their peers at ASOs in the U.S. and the world are passionate about the HIV Care Continuum designed to get community members tested and those who are diagnosed positive into care, receiving antiretroviral therapy consistently, and ultimately virally suppressed.

Studies released at February’s Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections (CROI) in Boston say that expanding HIV testing, treatment and the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) could reduce new HIV infections by 70% in five years. However, very conservative estimates say only about a third of America’s 1.2 million HIV-positive patients have a fully suppressed virus.

Nevertheless, doctors are treating those living with HIV and AIDS and the dental and psychiatric challenges they face.

Dentists Dr. Ryan Yamashiro and Dr. Daniel Jo solve oral health issues that trouble our patients, chief among them is dry mouth brought on by the infection, all the medicines patients take to achieve viral load suppression, or both. The dental clinic saw 374 patients in January, a 21% increase over January 2015.

Psychiatrists Dr. David Hersh and Dr. John Roberts try to make sure depression, anxiety, isolation, addictions, despair, and other mental health challenges don’t cause patients to drop out of the HIV Care Continuum. To that end, this department conducted 1,028 visits in January, including 187 psychotherapy appointments, a service that wasn’t available last January.

Through research, Dr. Steven Scheibel explores better treatments for a number of issues including a drug-resistant strain of gonorrhea, early detection of anal cancer, and adherence to medication regiments, which we know is an essential part of the HIV Care Continuum.

Desert AIDS Project in January welcomed Dr. David Morris as our new Medical Director. Dr. Morris oversees the Health Clinic and The DOCK, which offers testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections. Dr. Morris has already impressed the staff – which includes Drs. Shubha J. Kerkar, Ashraf A. Khan, Phyllis S.B. Ritchie, and Eric Shigeno – with his patient care, administrative skills, and his calm, caring demeanor.

The medical team is committed to making sure our patients are healthy in body and mind. With them on the case the number patients who are virally suppressed is bound to rise so we can end AIDS in our lifetime.

Living a full life, despite illness and loss A pretty, petite, 21-year-old is not exactly who comes to mind when we think of a long-term survivor of HIV and AIDS. But she is.

Kalayah Lanice Smith was born, HIV positive, on Sept. 14, 1994. That makes her a long-term survivor, at the ripe old age of 21, who helped us focus our attention on Youth HIV AIDS Awareness Day, April 10.

For Kalayah, there’s been a good deal of illness and even experimental medications that scarred her body. She attended three high schools and was bullied at each one because of her positive status.

Undoubtedly, Kalayah could bemoan the life she inherited … and, for a time, she was angry.

“I blamed my father. I asked him, ‘Why didn’t you just abort me when you had the chance? Why didn’t you wait another year when medicine preventing mother-to-child transmission came out? Y’all should have waited,’ ” Kalayah rants, then calms. In a be-careful-what-you-wish-type moment, she adds, “If they had waited a year to have me, I probably would have turned out to be a boy.”

It’s evident Kalayah loves being a girl. She adores make-up, hair styling, and manicured fingers and toes. And, while there might be plenty to be sad about, she always smiles. She refuses to get mired in sadness and shame. There’s no time for that. She’s got plans.

The 2013 graduate of Alessandro High School in Hemet wants the same things any other young woman wants – a career and a family. But Kalayah’s dreams are bigger than that. She also wants to be a psychologist, author, and motivational speaker who tells her story. Not the sad story: Her mother died of multiple organ failure when Kalayah was 14.

A sister born with HIV died at age 4 and another sister contracted it while in the throes of a drug addiction. Despite, or because of all this, Kalayah insists her story will be one of hope and success.

“People often ask, ‘How can you keep a smile on your face?’ ” Her answer: “Because there may be someone out there who’s worse off them me. When I become a motivational speaker, I’ll tell people to keep moving on. If I can make it, you can, too. Just keep moving on.”

Kalayah is among the approximate 84,000 young people between the ages of 13 and 24 who are living with HIV. She helps illuminate the issue of youngsters with the infection.

Today, the CDC says the risk of mother-to-child transmission of AIDS the way Kalayah contracted is fairly low. About 200 babies a year are born with the infection, according to the agency.

The risk of transmission falls when: Women with HIV receive medicine during pregnancy, childbirth and, in certain situations, have a scheduled cesarean (C-section) delivery.

Babies born to women with HIV receive HIV medicines for 6 weeks after birth and are not breastfed.

Back in 1993 when Kalayah was born, knowledge, medication, and procedures weren’t what they are today. The chief concern about youth and HIV these days is the rate and the method by which they are getting infected.

Youth aged 13 to 24 accounted for an estimated 26% of all new HIV infections in the United States in 2010.

Most new HIV infections among youth occur among gay and bisexual males; there was a 22% increase in estimated new infections in this group from 2008 to 2010.

Over 50% of youth with HIV in the United States do not know they are infected. (continued on back)

Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

2016 is going to be an EPIC year for D.A.P. patients!!

Desert AIDS Project is making a big step forward in how it electronically maintains patient medical records with Epic, which is used by the majority of U.S. News & World Report’s topranked hospitals and medical schools.

The switch to Epic is designed to not only automate patient information but also improve patient care, privacy, and safety. It also aligns D.A.P. with a wave of hospitals and clinics nationwide using Epic’s electronic health information system.

D.A.P adopted Epic as its new EHR so our clinical providers can quickly record treatment given here, while also monitoring procedures, tests, prescriptions, and more that our patients receive at other hospitals and clinics, says Physician Assistant Gennady “Henry” Nosovitsky. Henry should know … because he is now an “Epic Super User” since he attended training as D.A.P.’s provider representative in the adoption and implementation of the new system.

Patients will also be able to access their medical records and check past and upcoming appointments, see lab results, get visit summaries, see prescriptions, and eventually send messages to the health center using an Epic smartphone application (better known to all of us now as an “app”) called MyChart.

“Most people have smartphones,” Henry says. “And anybody, including our patients who’re generally 50 and older, can use this app. I mean … who doesn’t love a great app that does what it says it’s going to do?”

Since 60% of providers nationwide are using Epic, D.A.P. will be linked in to a network that includes Kaiser Permanente medical clinics, Loma Linda University Medical Center, University of California San Diego Medical Center, the Cleveland Clinic, Northwestern Memorial Health Care, and university hospitals throughout the country.

“Healthcare providers, who have a patient’s consent, can access any place the patient was seen if that facility uses Epic,” Henry says, adding that HIPAA requirements for privacy and security are maintained. “For example, if a patient went to Loma Linda for a bronchoscopy and had a second opinion at UCSD, we’d have to call Loma Linda and UCSD to get their

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Kalayah cont.

Youngsters often contract the virus when they hang out with mature adults, who are more likely to be infected, and when alcohol or drugs are a precursor to sex.

Kalayah calls that an unfortunate circumstance over which people, regardless of their age, can and must take control. She urges fellow Millennials to take advantage of the information and preventative medications now available. But mostly, she wants to model the full life that young people can have in spite of their HIV status.

She had a typical childhood growing up in western Riverside County. There was Double Dutch rope skipping, mud pies, snails, and Barbies. Today, there’s shoes, clothes, and parties. Her love of old movies, vintage TV shows, and vinyl played on a record player officially categorize Kalayah as an “old soul” who is both wise and assertive when speaking to fellow HIVpositive youth.

“You have to push yourself and go after your purpose,” she insists.

Watch Kalayah. She’ll show you how it’s done.

Epic cont. records on our current system. That could take days if not more. With Epic, I can access both Loma Linda and UCSD. That makes continuity of care much easier, and, at times, lifesaving.”

Joining Epic required a healthy financial investment for D.A.P. with an intense training and transition phase due to its demands for accuracy and security. “Staff members with access to Epic began 10 – 16 hours of training in mid-March,” says Karynsue Rose-Thomas, who directs Informatics and Compliance Management at D.A.P. “And we will transition to Epic during April, May, and June.”

Patients in the Medical Clinic and The DOCK can get a streamlined version of MyChart after the change-over. They will be told how to sign up for the app in mid-April.

They will be able to: • View labs and test results • Keep track of current medication lists • Read immunization records • Receive an after-visit summary of each appointment In the end, D.A.P. staffers said changing to Epic is worth the effort.

“It’s geared to making sure everything is done correctly to minimize inaccuracies,” says Mario Zuniga, Health Information Management coordinator. “It’s better for the clients because it’s easier for us to get them what they need.”

Women’s Empowerment Day invites sharing and growing The female clients of Desert AIDS Project will be front and center, as they receive manicures, massages, and sisterly love during the second annual Women’s Empowerment Day on May 21 … and it’s going to be all about health and wellness for women living with HIV and AIDS. They’ll learn more about their unique health and emotional issues from leading specialists. A favorite from last year’s event, Dr. Laveeza Bhatti, MD, PhD., Director of the Hep C/HIV Co-Infection Clinic at AIDS Healthcare Foundation in Los Angeles, is returning with more good advice. Dr. Bhatti is an infectious disease specialist, who has worked with female HIV-affected patients for years. Dr. Bhatti will be joined

by Jill Gover, PhD., director of Mental Health Services at The LGBT Community Center of the Desert. As a clinical psychologist, Dr. Gover specializes in addiction, anxiety, depression, aging, and LGBT issues.

“The Women’s Empowerment Day is important because we want our female clients to know we’re here to support their needs, just as we do their male counterparts,” says Brett Klein, Events and Retail Marketing Manager, who, along with Denise Marvel, Human Resources Coordinator, is organizing the day. Brett noted he and Denise want to introduce women to the many workshops, support groups, and alternative therapies offered at D.A.P. Janine Bell, Substance Abuse Specialist who leads our Women’s Empowerment Group, explains that reaching women, who comprise about 5% of D.A.P.’s client base, is difficult because they’re not as “out” about their HIV-positive status as gay men. Many of them are low-income single mothers who don’t hang out around D.A.P.’s campus and mingle. “After completing their medical, dental or case management appointments, they bolt,” Janine observes.

That’s why Brett feels it’s important for D.A.P. to extend a special invitation to women to let them know that D.A.P. is here for them, too.

“We learned at our first empowerment day that women experience the disease and its medications differently than men,” Brett says. “And there are very few outlets for them to learn about HIV the way they know it and share that knowledge with others who are going through the same thing.”

Last year, Dr. Bhatti explained HIV from a woman’s perspective and fielded questions that were both illuminating and touching. There were tears and reassurance among the audience of about 18 women, who shared their experiences. Dr. Bhatti applauded the size of the crowd saying it was unusually large for an event held by an AIDS service organization for women.

The second annual Women’s Empowerment Day will be held from 9:30 AM to 4 PM. on May 21 at D.A.P.’s main campus. The “safe space” day will include a session on building confidence and coping skills, a back-to-work career building seminar, breakfast, lunch, manicures, and massages. Childcare services are available on request.

Revivals Palm Desert soon to be “El Paseo adjacent” “Location, location, location” might be a realtor’s cliché but it still drives every retailer’s decisions about where to place their new store.

Location – to the third power — has driven Revivals Palm Desert to move from its location just off I-10, at 72-750 Dinah Shore Drive near Costco, and relocate seven miles south down Monterey Avenue to 72885 Highway 111 near El Paseo.

Still in Palm Desert, the new store will have the Westfield mall across the street and the posh El Paseo shopping district behind it. This popular corner at 111 and Monterey is awash in traffic that promises to drive Revivals sales skyward, according to Dane Koch, our Director of Retail.

“The move is all about location,” Dane says. “The store near Costco was so hard to find because we had no visibility from Dinah Shore.” With such heavy reliance on Costco shoppers, to sustain our business, the location offered little ability to grow. Expanding is essential for Revivals to continue its important contribution to D.A.P.’s diversified revenue stream to provide patient and client services.

“The new location on 111 offers great visibility. We believe we’ll retain our current shoppers while gaining new ones,” Dane smiled. “Being located in a strip mall with other successful retailers will greatly increase our traffic and sales. I believe we’ll see a corresponding improvement in the store’s profit. And every one of our 55 volunteers and six paid staff are committed to help us do that in support of D.A.P.’s mission.”

While he declined to elaborate, Dane hinted that this new location will have a closer affiliation with D.A.P.’s 100 Women annual giving program. Watch for details in future issues of DOSE …

Foot and vehicle traffic abound at the new location in the shopping center that’s anchored by Staples office supply center and Rite Aid pharmacy. At 15,000 square feet, the new store will be a bit smaller while still retaining the mod-meets-vintage flavor of Revivals, which sells new Mode furniture, along with gently used clothing, housewares, appliances and more.hile a formal Grand Opening date is still pending, the new location (continued on back)

Volunteer serves and entertains clients J. Scott Beaty plays “Not While I’m Around” on his grand piano as if the famous Stephen Sondheim song were the soundtrack of his life.

The song’s lyrics, “Nothing’s gonna hurt you, not while I’m around,” illustrates Scott’s lifelong record of serving and protecting those in need. It also symbolizes Scott’s love of music and the marriage he’s made between public service and piano to splendid effect. The Rochester, NY, native has been playing since he was three years old, so that’s a total of 61 years. And he’s been involved in service almost as long.

Scott volunteers for Special Olympics; the Neuro Vitality Center, formerly known as the (continued on back)

Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

A little bit of Success goes a long way ‘A body at rest stays at rest… unless acted upon by some other force.’

What does Newton’s First Law of Motion have to do with Desert AIDS Project, you ask?

Simply put, some D.A.P.’s clients say they’re “stuck.” They want healthier lives, to be more outgoing, and to accomplish some longheld goals. But getting started or sustaining momentum often seems impossible. So many resign themselves to being bodies at rest.

We believe Newton would recognize Jim Sherman, D.A.P. Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and Valerio Iovino, our Career Building Coordinator, as a force spurring inert clients to motion. The two established the Success Building Class at D.A.P., a 10-week course that encourages students to get moving.

“Valerio and I both realized that a lot of depression and anxiety could be alleviated if clients simply had something meaningful to do,” Jim says. “I’d already found out that symptons improved among my clients, who had taken Valerio’s Career Building workshop.” In 2015, the Career Building Program helped find jobs for 104 clients. In addition, three now have internships, 30 are volunteering, and three more have returned to school.

Jim says success is achieved when students find “a mission” and then turn that into goals with the action steps needed to reach them. Jim and Valerio also encourage clients to recognize barriers that can get in the way and plan a route around those barriers.

“Clients are encouraged to ask themselves, ‘What do I want to create in my life?’ while knowing that the entire class supports them in realizing that vision,” Valerio says. “Even when they’re tempted to stop when they hit a barrier, the group holds each other accountable so they can push through and reach their goals.”

Students were so successful, they asked the class to be extended to 10 weeks from its original eight. “Guys were getting back into the gym, creating art again, organizing their homes, arranging class outings and socializing again,” Valerio says. “They wanted to continue the momentum.” (continued on back)

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

REVIVALS cont.

SUCCESS cont.

will have a “soft opening” on Saturday, May 28, offering a $25 coupon on every purchase of $50 or more. The coupons will be good for the entire month of June.

The old location will remain open until very close to that date.

Michael: Making moving forward an everyday thing

SCOTT cont.

Stroke Recovery Center; and the Shelter from the Storm safe house for victims of domestic violence. Scott became a Desert AIDS Project volunteer in 1988. And he offers home care to AIDS patients, some of whom are too afraid to visit D.A.P. for fear someone will see them here and speculate about their HIV status.

Scott believes there’s still that much stigma in the world regarding AIDS and still that much need. That’s why he’s so willing to lend a helping hand. He learned about giving at home.

“I come from a very close Irish family,” Scott says. “My dad, John Beaty, who is 94, was always helping people. My mother, Marie, was a nurse before, during, and after World War II. Her specialty was working with mentally ill patients no one else wanted to care for. She was my example.”

Scott was one of six children that his mother would lull to sleep by playing piano.

Eventually, Scott stopped falling asleep, so she taught him to play. Although playing and singing were fixtures in his life, Scott pursued medicine until professors warned him he’d soon have to choose between the concerts he was performing and his medical studies.

Scott chose piano. He earned a bachelor’s in Theater Performance and English at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas.

He has a master’s degree in Operatic Performance from the Longy School of Music of Bard College in Cambridge, MA. Most recently, Scott was the featured solo artist performing “Music from the Heart” at the McCallum Theater in 2014.

He has a CD out, called “Music for Every Heart.” He’s played all types of events over decades for D.A.P. including the Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards and the Volunteer Appreciation Dinner held annually just before the Christmas holidays. In addition to that, he distributes food and vouchers to D.A.P. clients during our monthly giveaways.

Scott has been a pillar of support to AIDS patients since the early days of the disease. He recalled living in Boston 30 years ago and helping a friend who’d contracted the infection. People would throw rocks at AIDS patients and once they tried to pelt Scott’s friend when the two were

Inertia was a “new normal” for class member Michael Patton and seemed a natural response to being terribly ill for long stretches of time. Michael – a painter, teacher, and actor – had been hospitalized eight times in one year, often for weeks at a time.

On top of that, there was chemotherapy, substance abuse, a poor diet, missed dosages of medication, and a string of boyfriends who treated him badly.

“Even after I began to heal, I felt like I couldn’t get off the ground with some of the changes I wanted to make in my life,” Michael says. So he joined the Success Class where addressing self-esteem was also a powerful part of each session.

In the class, Michael was encouraged to set S.M.A.R.T. goals that are – Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, and Time-based. He chose returning to the gym and practicing his artwork every day as his initial goals.

Resuming a teaching career is a longer-range goal that depends on Michael maintaining a healthy T-cell count.

Michael is painting again and had work placed in the Desert AIDS Project Collective Art Show in its Cathedral City gallery. He keeps his teaching credentials current and his social life is a lot healthier than it once was. Today’s new normal even includes a boyfriend who “treats me like a prince,” Michael says with a smile.

Rick: Escaping the ghosts of San Francisco Dating again was just as important for long-term HIV survivor Rick Scott as returning to art was for Michael. “I felt like my life was stuck,” says Rick, 64. “I joined the class with aspirations of getting unstuck. And it worked.

I’m dating someone again, which is great, because I seem to function better when I have a little romance in my life.”

Personal relationships are a big deal to Rick because he’s lost so many people in his life. The former San Franciscan believes he contracted the virus in 1977, even before the first diagnoses in 1981. The 1980s and 1990s were spent watching friends and lovers die … losing all of his gay male friends, more than 100 people.

“I buried four lovers. That’s one of the reasons I moved here,” Rick said. “It was an escape from San Francisco and all those ghosts.”

Some 20 years later, Rick had his heart broken, rendering him lonely, unemployed, and sliding into inertia. He was neither exercising nor eating well, which is a dangerous combination for a diabetic. “I had broken up with my boyfriend a year prior and I wasn’t functioning well,” Rick says. “I like people, but I’d buried myself.”

Feeling he had to do something to break the malaise, Rick turned to the Success class for help. As things turned around, he began cycling regularly. “It helped me get over my fears,” Rick says. “I’ve never been a ‘fraidy cat’ … but this has been a weird time in my life.” out together. Scott took a few blows to the head while trying to get his very sick friend to safety.

As if on cue, Scott plays the part of Sondheim’s song that says: “Demons are prowling everywhere nowadays. I’ll send them howling. I don’t care, I got ways.”

Scott has remained a friend to those who survived AIDS from the old days. “Back then, people thought AIDS patients should be shipped off to an island,” Scott remembers. “Fear will do horrible things to people.”

That fear and stigma still haunts those with HIV. As long as it does, Scott will be here living Sondheim’s words: “Others can desert you. Not to worry, whistle, I’ll be there!”

Let’s Talk Tina: Reaching out to Crystal methamphetamine, diverse communities When D.A.P. was funded by the that is…

Riverside University Health System to This Tina isn’t your best girlfriend that you might be worried about. She’s something far more insidious and bears a bit of conversation. “Tina” is crystal methamphetamine, also called Crank … or Glass … or Ice … or Crystal … or Meth … or a variety of other street names. No matter the name anyone gives it, crystal methamphetamine can have devastating effects on the lives of those in its grasp.

Over 60% of 100 D.A.P. clients surveyed in March 2016 said they’d used crystal methamphetamine or that someone close to them had abused the drug.

The impact of this powerful synthetic stimulant is so staggering that our Behavioral Health Department, whose services include addiction counseling, decided to jump in. The result was the Crystal Meth Action Team, formed last August to help meet this challenge among D.A.P.’s own client population.

The client-staff team collaboration has since launched a multi-faceted campaign, “Let’s Talk About Tina…” designed to tell clients that D.A.P. is a safe place to disclose meth use — promising “no rejection, no judgment, and no loss of benefits” for stepping forward. Recognizing the heavy online activity of those using the drug, the campaign knew a website might be a highly-effective engagement tool for those considering crystal meth recovery. The aptly-named TinaTalk.org has a home page displaying alternating messages like “We know what it feels like. There is power in one addict helping another.”

Video testimonials, from clients in recovery, can be seen on the website and will soon be playing on “D.A.P. TV” waiting room monitors throughout the agency.

Flyers and business cards with resource telephone numbers are displayed on the desks of D.A.P. case managers. Wearing distinctive black T-shirts with “Let’s Talk About Tina …” on the front and TinaTalk.org on the back, members of the Team also make themselves available on once-monthly days when D.A.P. holds its Farmers Market and distributes food and transportation vouchers to all eligible clients.

“I think it’s safe to say that crystal meth use is epidemic in the Coachella Valley and at D.A.P.,” says Chief Clinical Officer Dr. David Hersh. “Our agency, known for treating the whole person, whether living with HIV or not, is duty-bound to address this challenge.”

Comments on the survey in March included: damaged or lost relationships; lost employment and housing; domestic violence; and missed doctors’ appointments and dosages of HIV medications. By missing doses, clients run the risk of becoming resistant to their medications.

Respondents said peer support, help for spouses and families of users, and referrals to 12-Step and other sobriety programs would be most helpful. And that’s exactly what the Team aims to provide, according to Ray Robertson, Manager of D.A.P.’s Client Wellness Services Center. “We’re not going to ferret out users and bring them to judgment day,” Ray says. “Instead, we’re opening doors to recovery.”

Desert AIDS Project | 1695 N. Sunrise Way | Palm Springs, CA 92262 | 760.323.2118

present Community Education events during the months of May and June, our internal teams knew they would be addressing four distinctly different audiences: gay men of color, women living with HIV, the transgender community, and families living in eastern Coachella Valley.

These groups often feel excluded from the conversation about HIV and the latest news about its prevention, treatment, and access-to-care. Yet, they are impacted

by HIV at rates that are disproportionate to their share of the overall population.

Because of that, they’re highlighted in the National HIV/AIDS Strategy for the United States: Updated to 2020 as needing special efforts to bring down new infections rates and get those with HIV into immediate, continuous care.

Here’s how Desert AIDS Project is reaching out to …

Gay men of color On May 8, D.A.P. helped Blatino Oasis – a retreat for Black and Latino gay men – cap their weekend activities with the “Kings Supporting Kings” 10th Anniversary Awards Brunch. About 200 guests heard keynote speaker Anthony “Antoine” McWilliams, of Emory University, rap about fighting stigma around HIV and sexual orientation. Following this audience-engaging start, Williams also spoke about PrEP, the common name for pre-exposure prophylaxis, using Truvada.

Since PrEP has proven nearly 100% effective in preventing the transmission of HIV, The DOCK at D.A.P. provides counseling and treatment for PrEP, as well as for PEP – post-exposure prophylaxis – for those with concerns about remaining HIV-negative. While PrEP provides protection against infection through a daily pill containing two antiretroviral (continued on back)

Desert AIDS Project | 760.323.2118 | www.desertAIDSproject.org

Community Health cont. medicines, PEP is a treatment that can help prevent HIV if antiretroviral medication is begun within 72 hours of exposure and taken for 28 days. As a part of our participation with Blatino Oasis, we provided HIV testing throughout the weekend retreat, including special hours from noon – 6:00 PM at The DOCK at D.A.P. on Sunday May 8, where we test for and treat a variety of sexually transmitted infections.

“Whenever we find ‘positive’ individuals who were previously unaware of their HIV status, it means they can now access proper care and medication, possibly preventing HIV from advancing to AIDS at some future point. Because, of course, if you’re unaware of your HIV status, you could be spreading the virus to someone else without knowing it,” said Bruce Weiss, Director of Community Health for D.A.P. “For any of us, knowledge of our current health status is the key to future good health.”

Similarly, D.A.P. made HIV testing available at the White Party in April, including opening The DOCK for its first Sunday testing hours on April 10. Later that same month, transgender advocates were invited to a meet-and-greet with staff and to tour The DOCK on National Transgender HIV Testing Day on April 18.

Women with HIV Following up on its success from 2015, D.A.P. and members of its 100 Women annual giving program staged the 2nd annual Women Empowerment Day on May 21, to offer female clients the information they need to stay healthy and happy.

Eighteen women attended this year, a 20% increase from last year, and were treated to food, treats, and valuable prizes.

But they seemed most thrilled when Jill Gover, Ph.D., discussed the Five Elements of Self-Esteem. “When faced with this chronic illness, it definitely – especially for women – affects your self-esteem,” the clinical psychologist and Mental Health Services Director at the LGBT Center in Palm Springs, told the women. “But rather than talk about self-esteem, we’re going to do exercises that build self-esteem. It’s like exercising a muscle. You have to get out there and do it.” The women applauded and jumped right into it.

They were similarly enthused with Dr. Laveeza Bhatti, infectious disease expert who specializes in caring for women and got high marks from last year’s attendees. She discussed many topics, including HIV drugs that are best suited to women.

“You have to look at lighter medications… I like integrase inhibitors, rather than protease,” Dr. Bhatti said. “They are the best tolerated by the women I see.”

Other communities to be targeted On June 30, D.A.P. will be at the Riverside County Department of Education in Indio for an all-day health education fair for families living in the eastern Coachella Valley. With the understanding that many of these residents may be underserved for health care needs, D.A.P. will be helping to provide prevention and treatment education around concerns like HIV, Hepatitis C, mental health, and much more.

Just two days earlier, on June 28, we’ll be partnering with the Transgender Community Coalition for their Transgender Pride event at the Tolerance Center in Rancho Mirage. Aydian Dowling, a trans activist and fitness enthusiast will be the keynote speaker and there will be other speakers on subjects including transgender health, mental health, and returning to work, in addition to food and door prizes.

Among the findings of the first-ever Riverside County LGBT Health and Wellness Profile, published in 2014, it remarked that “… where our LGBT community in the eastern county is the third largest by size in the United States, a full and objective assessment of the community’s health concerns and disparities is desperately needed.” Two years later, many of those disparities and health concerns still need to be addressed.

Straight or LGBT … man or woman … rich or poor … regardless of sexuality, gender, socio-economic status, race, HIV status, or any other criteria which sometimes seek to divide us, the commonality among diverse communities is that we all need and deserve quality health care. Desert AIDS Project – and by extension, Get Tested Coachella Valley and The DOCK – will continue to reach out to all communities to help that happen.