Maryland Health Center Expands Beyond HIV-AIDS Role

For about two decades, Chase Brexton Health Services in the Mount Vernon area of Baltimore focused primarily on HIV/AIDS. Initially a small health program within Baltimore's Gay and Lesbian Community Center, Chase Brexton became known for its services for HIV/AIDS and drew many non-gay HIV patients to its services.

Over the past five years, the service center has added a suburban location and returned to its emphasis on the gay and lesbian community. It offers primary care and a range of other health services, while continuing to treat patients with HIV/AIDS. "We've hung a different shingle," with an effort to "position us in a different light, and tell gays and lesbians that this place is not just for HIV," said David H. Shippee, Chase Brexton's executive director.

The center's new services allow it to attract more insured clients and gets about 60 percent of its revenue from clinical services and 28 percent from government grants. The remainder of its $19 million annual budget comes from corporate and individual donations. The center has 117 staff members and serves 1,400 HIV patients, as well as 4,000 other patients.

Now known as "Baltimore's premier gay and lesbian health provider," the center has wrestled with how to market its new mission. New brochures announce the center as one that "treats people like the individuals that they are -- gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and straight." Three years ago, it added a Pikesville location, chosen for its Beltway access for suburban patients. "Not everybody that's gay in this town lives in Bolton Hill or Mount Vernon," Shippee said.

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