San Francisco's AIDS/HIV Nightline Helping Those Who Suffer to Make It Through the Night

Throughout the night, volunteers put in shifts at a secure phone room, taking confidential calls from frightened, lonely and isolated individuals from the San Francisco Bay Area and around the country. Begun in 1989, the AIDS/HIV Nightline is a crisis telephone hotline that offers emotional support, information and referrals to callers who either have HIV/AIDS or are otherwise affected by the epidemic.

The three paid staff members and four-dozen part-time volunteer phone operators, who complete a 40-hour training program before they begin to take calls, do not serve as formal therapists or social workers. Instead, they take a peer-level approach, helping callers work through their problems by engaging with them in a nonjudgmental dialogue.

In some socially conservative communities, people are afraid of talking to their doctors about AIDS or visiting an HIV testing center for fear that they will be identified by people they know. Calls from people considering suicide are now more rare than when Nightline first began operating, said Program Director Rolph Shanabruch. Many calls are from AIDS patients concerned about whether their medicines will continue to work. Others are experiencing failing health medication or side effects. Some callers are worried about the interaction between their hepatitis C and HIV drugs, which don't always work well together.

About half of Nightline's funding comes from the federal government; the remainder is a mix of corporate, individual and other contributions. In fact, Nightline is generally short on funds. Shanabruch said that with funds being diverted into medical and clinical care, social and mental health services funding is inadequate. And with medical insurance and vocational needs still at issue, Shanabruch said, "People need to know that someone will help them work through the practical and the emotional problems they are dealing with on a day-to-day basis." Telephone 415-984-1902 for more information.

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