The planning council routinely commissions new assessments of the needs of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHs) in the Baltimore EMA. In general, PLWHs need a variety of both medical services and supportive services that help them receive medical care. Some examples of the types of services they need include:
Primary medical care is care given by a doctor, physician’s assistant, or nurse in a doctor’s office or clinic. The care might include a general medical exam, like checking blood pressure, or it could include services like blood tests, treating infections, or prescribing medications.
Case management helps PLWHs to plan, coordinate and receive all needed services.
Many people, upon learning of a positive HIV test result, feel frightened, worried, or all alone. Sometimes talking about those feelings with someone can be helpful; someone like a therapist or psychiatrist. These services are available to clients, family and household members and caregivers, to help them with some of the feelings like fear, anxiety, worry, or loneliness that they might feel as they deal with their own or their loved one’s HIV diagnosis.
Substance-abuse treatment means medical care or counseling to treat problems with alcohol or legal or illegal drugs.
This service includes the delivery of food, meals, or nutritional supplements to house-bound PLWHs. Nutritional counseling involves education about menu planning and how diet and medications work together, evaluation of weight changes, and referral to food programs like WIC and food stamps.
The above are only examples of the types of services that many PLWHs need. For a complete list of funded services and their detailed definitions, refer to the Standards of Care.
How Services are FundedUnder the guidance of the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), a unit of the Department of Health and Human Services, grants are awarded to eligible metropolitan areas (EMAs) around the nation. The Baltimore EMA is made up of Baltimore City and its six suburban counties (Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford, Howard and Queen Anne’s). Central to the Ryan White Program is the idea of local communities deciding for themselves how to best use federal dollars. In the Baltimore EMA, many entities are involved in carrying out the activities based on that idea, including:
To meet its objective of setting service priorities and allocating funds to service categories, the planning council draws on a variety of existing data sources. In addition, it commissions new assessments to determine what are the greatest areas of need in the Baltimore EMA. The culmination of the assessment and planning activities the council engages in throughout the year is a two-day planning conference at which service priorities are set and funding allocations are voted on. |