California Agency Helps HIV-Positive People Get Back into the Workforce

Thanks to improved drug therapies, HIV-positive people are re-entering the workforce in higher numbers each year. Many are eager to get back to work, but that can be tough in a job market reeling from the economic downturn. Earlier this year, the California Employment Development Department took action, implementing Jobs for All -- a statewide program dedicated entirely to people living with HIV.

Adam Klein heads the San Francisco program, working from the offices of Positive Resource Center (PRC), a benefits counseling and employment organization for people with HIV. Klein meets daily with clients, helping them target their interests, contact employers, and write resumes and cover letters. But finding a job for someone with HIV is a special task. The satisfaction they receive from work is not a luxury; rather, it is crucial to their health that they enjoy their job. In addition, Klein's clients worry about the benefits they may lose if they go back to work, and they are concerned with health coverage and with the ways fatigue impacts their life.

PRC program coordinator Mark Misrok, who was diagnosed with HIV in 1989, knows how the virus can change a person's perspective. "When you have your mortality in front of your face and thought you had this [death sentence] and that has been reversed, it's not unusual for values to change. People with HIV might have more specific goals -- and as employees they may be the most motivated and focused people that you can hire."

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