Tuesday Take OUT

ARcare Receives $500,000 Grant to Expand HIV Services in Arkansas

Funding will benefit women, infants, children and youth unable to afford HIV healthcare

ARcare, a community health center providing medical and other services in Arkansas and Kentucky, has been awarded a federal grant of $500,000 to provide a full range of HIV specialty medical and social services for women, infants, children and youth who are infected or affected by HIV/AIDS and living in 53 counties of northwest, southwest, north central and northeast Arkansas.

The grant was awarded through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Ryan White Part D Healthcare Program. The funding will expand access to care for HIV positive individuals who otherwise are unable to afford HIV health care and support services. Such services include HIV specialty and primary care visits, mental health services, oral health services, medical and non-medical case management, nutritional counseling, transportation assistance, adherence education and monitoring, outreach, and other services either at an ARcare medical clinic, an ARcare HIV Service Access Center, or with partnering agencies and healthcare systems.

“ARcare has been a Part D Grantee for the past 11 years, serving only Northeast Arkansas. Now, with this new competitive grant, we are able to expand our medical services to women, infants, children and youth in parts of the state that have never had access to the benefits of this grant, including the entire western half of Arkansas” said Dr. J. Dan Moore, HIV Services Program Director for ARcare. “We can now partner with local HIV providers and other specialists in the new service area to help assure that the target populations have access to health care services. This grant will further our mission at ARcare of providing ‘Health for All’.”

ARcare currently provides HIV services as a subcontractor in five of the six HIV service districts for the Arkansas Department of Health’s HIV Services Ryan White Part B Program, providing HIV social services at 14 ARcare HIV Service Access Center sites throughout Arkansas. ARcare also provides direct HIV and primary medical care and other social services through the Ryan White Part C Grant in North Central and Northeast Arkansas at ARcare clinics located in Conway, Kensett, Batesville, and Jonesboro, Arkansas.

This grant is awarded by the Health and Human Services (HHS) to 114 community-based organizations, university hospitals and health departments nationwide in the amount of more than $68 million nationwide to ensure that women, infants, children, and youth living with HIV/AIDS receive comprehensive primary HIV medical care and support services.

“With these investments, we’re targeting our resources to the communities that need them most,” HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said. “This will help women, infants and children with HIV get the care and treatment they need by increasing access to comprehensive, coordinated primary care.”

For more information about HIV services at ARcare, please visit http://www.arcarehiv.com. ARcare has been recognized by the National Committee for Quality Assurance as a Level III Patient Centered Medical Home, and was the first community health center nationwide to receive this distinction.

 

Augusta-based ARcare, a Baptist Health affiliate, is a private nonprofit corporation developed to provide affordable care to meet the primary medical and dental care needs of the residents of Arkansas through a network of primary care clinics, dental clinics, pharmacies and wellness centers. Dr. Steven Collier helped start the organization in 1986. Today, ARcare serves 30 communities. ARcare received the State Governor’s Quality Award for Achievement, and also serves as the state contractor for the Special Services Program. For more information and a complete list of clinics and affiliations, visit www.arcare.net  J. Dan Moore, M.D.

 Advertising Campaign on Talent Search

 

The CDC is recruiting additional Let's Stop HIV Together (www.ActAgainstAIDS.org) campaign participants...specifically young, HIV positive men and their partners for campaign posters, billboards, digital/video stories, etc. Do you know any young men fitting this description who may be interested? If so, please feel free to contact me at 954-821-2019 or 404-639-5227 or asantana1@cdc.gov. Our photo/video shoot will take place in September. The dates should be finalized in the coming weeks, COP 24/7 will put it out as soon as it's announced. Also we will update on the local "Know Now" campaign that has been finding its footing and direction in its effort to address this health delimma in Arkansas.

Let's Stop HIV Together is a new national communication campaign by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that features images of individuals living with HIV and their loved one or friend. The campaign conveys that on a personal level, individuals living with HIV are --- real, everyday people who are, mothers, fathers, friends, partners, brothers, sisters, bosses, wives, co-workers, and daughters. On a national level, the campaign raises awareness about the impact of HIV and fights stigma about people living with HIV. The campaign is a part of CDC's 5-year Act Against AIDS <http://www.actagainstaids.org/> campaign launched by the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services and CDC in 2009.