AIDS Conference to Focus on Social Services

Some 5,000 experts, patients, and health care workers are heading to Palm Springs for the 11th annual U.S. Conference on AIDS, which runs Wednesday through Saturday at the Palm Springs Convention Center.

Chief among concerns at the event, whose theme is "One Family, One Voice, One Spirit," will be how service providers can use newly restricted federal funding to meet the needs of a patient population that is growing in number and living longer.

"It's very challenging with dwindling funds," said host committee co-chair Joe Acosta. "But it's also wonderful to hear that despite all those odds, we're trying to make ends meet."

The Ryan White program, reauthorized by Congress in 2006, now specifies that 75 percent of funds be spent on core medical services, said Peter DeMartino, public policy coordinator at the Desert AIDS Project. This leaves only 25 percent of the money to support the activities of social service providers. "People are feeling the crunch," he said. "The impact is being felt all over the country." The change has forced DAP to halt its food assistance program, which had helped 2,300 people.

A further challenge for communities, like Palm Springs, with large numbers of older people is that funds are distributed based on the number of patients diagnosed with HIV in a given community. Those who were diagnosed in one location but retired to another do not count toward the second community's patient tally.

The National Minority AIDS Council is sponsoring the meeting, which is being staged for the first time in a non-metropolitan area. In conjunction with the conference, local officials are holding a town hall meeting Thursday at 6:45 p.m. at the Wyndham Palm Springs; the public is welcome. For information on the conference, visit www.2007usca.org.

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