HIV program shuts down

By Ruth Williams
Summer Forty-Niner

A program, created to provide support to people diagnosed with HIV, will close its doors permanently on June 30.

The Cal State Long Beach Center for Behavioral Research and Services HIV Mental Health Program will not reapply for the $200,000 grant because Los Angeles County requires that all county-funded HIV mental health programs are affiliated with a medical facility, said Jim Yandell, CSULB’s HIV Mental Health program manager.

“We started warning our clients a month ago, Yandell said.  Some of them have been with us three or four years.  Some of them may be ready to take a break.  However, clients with abandonment issues may find it difficult to manage without the program.” 

The idea to start an HIV mental health program came from Nancy Corby, associate director for the Center for Behavioral Research and Services, Yandell said.  The program was implemented eight years ago.

“It [the program] was more of an emergency response to the AIDS epidemic,” Yandell said.  “Back then, many people were dying of AIDS,” he said.

Although the therapists will no longer have jobs, they are much more concerned with finding other facilities for their clients.  Shann Collotzi is trying to send as many of his Spanish-speaking clients to the St. Mary Hospital’s C.A.R.E Program.

“It’s becoming more difficult to have regular sessions with them because I have to tell them that I will not be seeing them anymore,” Collotzi said.

“Many of the programs that have applied for our grant are not up and running and we have no good referral to give our clients,” said Monte Morton, clinical social worker.  He also said that because the program is closing, many of his clients have been less forthcoming in their sessions.

Carl Semien, who has been a client of the program for three years, said that his therapist helped him confront many issues that he was afraid to talk about. 

“It’s important who you connect with,” Semian said.  “When the connection is made, it’s easy to talk about things.” 

Once the program ends, the clients will have to sign consent forms so their files can be stored.  These files will be kept for several years before they are destroyed.  The records are kept for legal purposes. However, Yandell said he is not certain as to where they will be stored.

“It has been a good program for the time it’s been here, but with the development of protease inhibitors and other medications, people have been given their lives back to some extent,” Morton said.