In ten years, state funding went from $130,000 to $6,000
– not enough to run a support group
As the AIDS death toll reaches 25 million worldwide, it’s a good
thing San Benito County has a whopping $6,000 to protect its 57,000
citizens.
In ten years, state funding went from $130,000 to $6,000 – not enough to run a support group
As the AIDS death toll reaches 25 million worldwide, it’s a good thing San Benito County has a whopping $6,000 to protect its 57,000 citizens.
Ten years ago this was not the case: the state funded San Benito County with thousands of dollars annually. It had outreach programs, support groups for HIV positives, and the San Benito County AIDS Project which, among many things, hosted Casino Night fundraisers.
Today, the San Benito County AIDS Project no longer exists. Support groups disbanded.
“Even though most of these people did not have a lot of social support,” said Samela Perez, county Director of Public Health Services, “they were afraid of being identified in our small community.”
Worse still, funding today is so low that San Benito does not have a single HIV Education and Prevention Program of its own.
“Ten years ago the county had over $130,000 in HIV/AIDS funding,” said Muree Reafs, San Benito County Director of Nurses. “That amount plummeted to $80,000 at the turn of the millennium. Our last offer was $6,000.”
As a result, the county Health Department is not able to dedicate as much staff time to seek out “high risk” groups, like the county jail, DUI classes, and labor camps.
In addition, San Benito youths have suffered and outreach is limited. The county has turned away from traditional “preventative education” towards “positive prevention.”
“We are now working with other programs keep youths away from sexual activities,” said Reafs. “Clubs and sports programs all help, indirectly.”
The California HIV Planning Group determines funding distribution in accordance with the Centers for Disease Control. The Planning Group allocates money based on several factors: the number of persons living with AIDS, total AIDS cases, population density and poverty levels, among others.
“We are a small community with very few HIV/AIDS cases,” said Robert England, San Benito HIV/AIDS surveillance coordinator. “Even if we wanted more funding for our programs, we are restricted by the state funding formula. There is little we can do.”
The upshot of the pinched funding makes for a lopsided state workload: San Benito County has handled only 40 of the 140,000 cumulative AIDS cases in California.
Funding restraints have reduced the county health department to mere HIV/AIDS surveillance, and basic treatment for HIV positives through the Ryan White Program. Ryan White is a case management and support service for HIV positives in San Benito County.
HIV education services funding now goes to the Monterey County AIDS Project (MCAP). In exchange, MCAP sends John XXIII, an AIDS outreach program, to aid San Benito County. John XXIII is responsible for needle exchange programs, counseling, testing, and preventative outreach to “high risk” groups.
“We give our funding to Monterey County whether they provide HIV education, or not,” said Reafs.
San Benito High School provides the only other source of preventative education in the county. This is taught in the Freshman Human Biology class. HIV education and prevention are squeezed into a two week period covering STDs, birth control, and embryology.
“It’s certainly not enough coverage,” said San Benito High School Superintendent Jean Burns Slater. “There needs to be revisions, but, as you know, we have a funding crisis. Right now we are being pushed to teach academics.”
On top of her busy schedule with the Ryan White Program, social worker Patricia Morales educates local middle school children about HIV through the Community Challenge Grant. The state funds are for preventative education against teen and unwed pregnancies. Morales estimates reaching over 400 students this year alone.
Last year marked the first step forward in improving HIV education. Assemblyman Laird, (D-Santa Cruz), fought for and secured $5.6 million for the State Office of AIDS, HIV Education and Prevention Program above what Governor Schwarzenegger proposed. The funding will be distributed to 54 local health jurisdictions that have seen prominent drops in HIV prevention funding. San Benito County is one of these jurisdictions.
“That will give San Benito County around $100,000, restoring funding to 2001-2002 levels,” said Ethan Brown, Monterey County HIV Programs Coordinator.
However, $100,000 will do little for San Benito County. “It is not enough to run a program,” said Reafs. “You need at least $250,000 to run a decent program — bottom line. To give us less than half is ludicrous. Nothing would change.”
With sufficient funding, the Health Department should be able to provide a preventative education campaign for the appropriate groups. But past requirements made providing outreach a risky business, according to Reafs.
“Even when we had more funding, we were restricted by who we could outreach. The state told us we had to work with gay men or labor camp workers,” Reafs said. “That means an all male, mono-lingual Spanish environment. It can be dangerous; I’m not going to send my social workers out there.”
Despite these measures already taken, the state cannot do everything.
“It has become acceptable to have AIDS,” said Perez. “I remember as a student in San Francisco other people in the classroom coming down with the purple sores. People didn’t know what was going on; it was scary. We don’t have that anymore.”
The HIV/AIDS numbers may be low and that might give people reason not to care, but the risk is still out there.
“Disease is always out there,” said Reafs. “If we let our guard down it will get ahead of us.”
