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The HIV/AIDS Program: Caring for the Underserved

 

Jeanne White Ginder - Ryan White 2008 Meeting

Dear Attendees,

Welcome to the meeting! As far as we’ve come with this epidemic, there are still things that people do not understand about HIV/AIDS. I hear it in their questions.

When I go out and speak I mention the Ryan White program and hear: “Why haven’t I heard about this program?” But I explain what you do and now they know. Perhaps I reach just a roomful of people at a time but still it matters.

But there is another question, one that Ryan was always asked. “How did you get it?” Ryan responded that it is a disease, not a dirty word. Still, over two decades later, people still ask—or say things—and it shows us that AIDS stigma remains with us. Stigma seems like a small matter of a word until you consider what it causes. When some learn they have HIV, they avoid care out of fear. Others hesitate to talk to partners about risks and prevention and sexuality. Schools do not teach about it. Families grow silent and apart.

I do not want my thoughts to be misunderstood because we have in fact made great progress against stigma, parallel to the success you have seen in treatment and care for people living with this virus. My point is that we need to remain vigilant. One way is for us to look back to what did the most to move us out of the dark ages of thinking about AIDS. We put a face on AIDS. Brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, neighbors and friends. And sons like my own. Under this program, those faces are the clients in clinic waiting rooms and the staff in back offices. They are the people in planning groups and on consumer advisory boards.

The second thing is to look ahead. I hesitate to say what the future will be because that is for us to figure out together. You are, of course, at this conference to do this very thing—to learn from each other, to share, to solve. One room full of people at a time. It still matters.

Sincerely,

 

Jeanne White Ginde