Presentation to CU meeting on 13 December 2006 by Janet Mann, the Director of Program Development at AIDS Interfaith Ministries of Kentuckiana, Inc (AIM)
Question: What is lipodystrophy?
AIM is a one-stop shopping for HIV/AIDS located on the Third Floor of the 850 Building on Barret Avenue in Louisville, Kentucky. Consolidated there is the Specialty Clinic providing confidential and anonymous testing for all sexually transmitted diseases and for the HIV virus, the Jefferson County Health Department, Volunteers of America Care Coordinator Program providing case management for people living with HIV/AIDS, Volunteers of America STOP Program providing prevention case management, outreach and testing in the larger community, the HIV/AIDS Legal Project providing legal counsel for clients, and AIM. Other local HIV organizations are House of Ruth working with housing issues, the WINGS Clinic, a federally funded outpatient medical clinic for HIV positive persons, the HIV Dental Clinic, and Family & Children's Counseling Centers. All of these agencies comprise the AIDS Services Center Coalition, Inc. All services provided are free of charge. AIM was co-founded in the late 80's by Dr. James Hyde, Sr. Mary Bennett Cecil, Fr. Vernon Robertson, Jack Kersey, and Sr. Marilyn Spink. AIM is a non-profit AIDS Services Organization comprised of clergy, laity, community professionals and volunteers of all faith perspectives committed to People Living with HIV/AIDS by providing spiritual, nutritional, and emotional support in a community building context which is non-judgmental and life affirming in approach. AIM seeks to be a bridge between the HIV/AIDS and faith communities. AIM is affiliated with the national Faith in Action program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who responded in the mid 90's with a grant. AIM receives funding from the Ryan White CARE Act, HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS), and the Louisville AIDS Walk. AIM is an interfaith organization which strives for racial and ethnic diversity on their Board as well as always seeking input from HIV/AIDS clients. AIM continues to plan the World AIDS Day program on December 1st to insure the interfaith connection piece will continue.
AIM provides Pastoral Care and Counseling to individuals, couples, families, and close friends touched by HIV/AIDS. The current Pastoral Counselor is Linda Reynolds. Services include home and hospital chaplaincy, nursing home visitation, crisis intervention, support and counseling for end-of-life issues and grief counseling, as well as funeral and memorial services and planning. Pastoral counseling is mental health counseling that integrates the spiritual and psychological dimensions of human experiences.
Pastoral Counselors are professionals trained to address grief, bereavement, feelings of isolation, and other types of emotional and spiritual distress. Grief ministry is at the heart of care for people touched by HIV/AIDS. People living with the disease experience many losses through the course of their illness. Pastoral care and counseling attends to their feelings of loss and grief, and supports their feelings of hope. Also, grief ministry provides bereavement counseling for the family members, spouses and partners, and close friends.
An annual retreat is planned in the fall of the year and is a much-anticipated event for our clients. Most of our clientele rarely get an opportunity for an all expense paid get away weekend with time for self reflection, introspection, sharing, and socialization with their peers.
Our organization facilitates several support groups for the HIV Positive Community including Basement Conversations, a men's support group for infected and affected, in conjunction with WINGS Support Services, and A Spiritual Platform, a support group for men and women who are HIV positive. This support group helps clients evaluate and track their spiritual development. Members of this group discuss their choices, risks, personal relationships and life experiences in a non-threatening and confidential setting. Other HIV/Aids Support Groups in Louisville are KALA (Kentucky AIDS Life Alliance), SABSA (sisters and brothers surviving AIDS), and Kitchen Conversations, a women's support group with the WINGS Clinic. One of AIM's major goals is to keep HIV clients independent and self-sufficient in their homes, helping to keep families together and reduce the risk of eviction, homelessness, and/or the necessity of extended nursing facility care due to the impact of HIV/AIDS. This is done in a myriad of ways.
AIM, in conjunction with Volunteers of America Care Coordinator Program and House of Ruth, offers on-going collaborative lifeskills educational workshops for the HIV/AIDS community. Each agency sponsors four workshops a year on the third Friday of each month. The goal of the workshops is to educate HIV/AIDS infected and affected clients in order to increase self-sufficiency, self-efficacy, self-awareness, and self-advocacy. Topics for the presentations include, but are not limited to, areas of nutrition and healthy food selection, budgeting, housing and prevention of homelessness, and healthcare/medication issues. Past workshop topics have included: nutrition and self-care, alternative health methods, HIV and healthy relationships, coping with depression (holiday blues), budgeting and money management, smart shopping and purchasing power, Project Warm, landlord negotiations, employment issues, resume writing, end-of-life issues, community resources, humor and healing, exercise, and spirituality. As the Director of Program Development, I schedule, plan, develop, and implement these workshops. The workshops are usually conducted in a three-hour timeframe. Each attendee receives a hot, catered meal, a chance to win doorprizes, and a $15 Kroger gift card as incentives for participating. The workshops have one to four presenters who have an expertise in the area of the workshop theme, and average between 40-60 people in attendance. In addition to offering education and self-sufficiency, the workshops offer a social climate for relationship building and socialization.
For many years now AIM, in a joint venture with Central Presbyterian Church, provides a monthly dinner for the HIV/AIDS community and their caregivers. The Third Tuesday Night Dinner, also known as the Buddy Dinner, provides fun, food, and fellowship to approximately 50-60 adults living with the illness. This dinner began as a way for the HIV community to be supportive of each other and offer socialization to many who live very isolated lives. The dinner provides a wonderful environment for community building among our clients and creates lasting friendships that help alleviate the isolation and loneliness that can accompany the disease. The majority of AIM's clients are on very limited incomes, therefore, proper nutrition is a constant challenge. The Third Tuesday Dinner provides a healthy, nutritious, balanced dinner for our clients. Mark Baridon, the pastor, and many of their parishioners and friends of the community give countless selfless volunteer hours providing services such as shopping, setup, cooking, serving, cleanup, entertainment, incredible hospitality, and financial support. Humble servants extending God's hands in service. AIM could not provide all the direct services it does without the dedication, commitment, and support of our volunteers.
One of the most valuable components of AIM's direct client services is the Food Pantry, which is inclusive of personal care items and household cleaning supplies. This program encompasses a community-based Food Pantry where people living with HIV/AIDS may access supplemental non-perishable food items, personal care items, and household cleaning supplies. Clients, the majority whom are on fixed incomes and receive an average monthly disability check of $550 and live well below the poverty level, are eligible to receive the food and personal care supplements once a month and a $15 gift card to purchase household cleaning supplies every three months. Gift cards are used due to the lack of storage space at the AIM offices. The Pantry is stocked weekly through program funds and occasional church food drives.
The food bags distributed are nutritionally balanced and uniquely designed for the dietary needs of the HIV consumer as well as for their diabetic needs. The bags were designed by a nutritionist at the University of Louisville HIV WINGS Clinic to meet the specific needs of the HIV consumer. The food bag consist of approximately 17 items including canned meats, tuna fish, peanut butter, canned vegetables, canned fruits, boxed potatoes, boxed pasta, and cereal. The personal care bags consist of toilet paper, shampoo, feminine hygiene products, shaving cream, deodorant, soap, razors, toothpaste, and a toothbrush.
The Food Pantry has become a primary source of supplemental food for HIV clients due to food plan programs being discontinued within other HIV organizations, as well as reduction in federal food stamp programs and disability revenues. Based on the growing number of HIV cases in Kentucky coupled with the decline in other programs, the demands on the Food Pantry are ever increasing.
A unique part of the Food Pantry is the availability of delivery service to the homebound who can not manage to come into the office for supplies. The Food Pantry benefits the clients in many ways – it provides a nutritious diet, saves money on food expenditures that can then be used to pay rent, utilities, medicines, and other monthly expenses, and most importantly, helps attain and maintain self-sufficiency. AIM arranges for minor home repairs and yard work when possible. When illness is present, home maintenance and property maintenance can be a real challenge.
A major piece of the puzzle is the AIM Care Teams. AIM Care Teams were created in 1998 to help local faith communities meet the special needs of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Care Teams are primarily faith community-based expressions of care and compassion to persons living with the illness. Volunteers from participating congregations are matched with individuals and families in the community who need volunteer services. By utilizing the Care Team approach real needs are met with real solutions. AIM provides trained and insured volunteers to work individually or as a team with individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS. Services may include transportation to medical appointments, grocery shopping, light housekeeping, meal preparation, laundry, pet care, yard work, child or respite care, minor home repairs, food delivery, socialization, friendly visiting and companionship, to name a few. AIM Care Teams strive to improve the quality of these deserving individuals lives. Even though the medications have prolonged the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS, the quality of life is jeopardized by the horrific side-effects from these meds such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, pain, neuropathy, weakness, fatigue, thrush, facial lesions, wasting syndrome, altered body shapes called lipodystrophy or fat redistribution, high blood sugar, high cholesterol and triglycerides, high blood pressure, and high liver enzymes. Then there is the daily indignities of being on disability and food stamps, lack of medical coverage, frustrations with pharmacies and medications not to mention feelings of despair, depression, quilt, shame, loneliness, and isolation. It is not easy for some to have to constantly ask for help and assistance. HIV/AIDS clients health very often becomes their full time job. Many average one to two medical appointments a week. One client who lives in Brooks, Kentucky, not only deals with AIDS but Hepatitis C, a recent heart attack, lung problems, skin cancers and dental problems due to side effects from his meds, and depression. In an average month he could need transportation for medical appointments with a dentist, an oncologist, an HIV specialist, a pulmonary specialist, a heart specialist, a dermatologist, and a psychiatrist.
For one week every June, AIM works as support staff with a project called Camp Heart to Heart. Camp Heart to Heart is a collaboration between Lions Camp Crescendo, AIDS Interfaith Ministries of Kentuckiana (AIM), House of Ruth, Kentucky AIDS Life Alliance (KALA), and other AIDS service organizations. Camp Heart to Heart was formed in 1999 for children living with HIV/AIDS. The camp is made possible with financial help from individuals, companies, clubs, foundations, and Lions members. Camp Heart to Heart is open to all children ages 5-12 who are living in the shadow of HIV or AIDS. This includes kids who have HIV/AIDS, those who have a HIV positive family member, or have lost a family member to AIDS. The camp objectives are to provide a traditional lifetime camping experience for these special children, to promote social growth, self-confidence, and self-reliance, to provide an opportunity to share with their peers, and to provide opportunities for creative expression. The activities include swimming, arts and crafts, paddle boating on the lake, a field trip, campfire storytelling, sports, fishing, talent show and skits, an awards program, and much, much more. This year the camp had 63 happy campers. Besides providing a wonderful experience for the children, it also provides a respite for their parents and caregivers for a week.
I feel AIM has been successful in their mission. We have had very good attendance at our workshops, dinners, and retreats. We have provided transportation to medical appointments, dental clinics, grocery shopping, etc. We had 50 clients at one of our retreats last year. At the closing ritual it was very moving and rewarding to hear the participants speak from their hearts about their experience. One gentleman said he didn't realize how empty he was until he got filled back up that weekend. Another spoke of his depression lifting and feeling hopeful once again. And many spoke to making new friendships and renewing old ones that broke through the isolation and loneliness they were feeling.
But funding remains a constant issue for the local HIV organizations. Grants are drying up and the current thinking very often is that AIDS is a manageable disease with new medications that keep everything in check. No problem. But these are misnomers. In the past, the Louisville AIDS Walk has been a major source of funding for the ASCC organizations. In its hayday there were 4,000 plus walkers and revenue of over $300,000. In recent years the walkers are down by half with the funds down by two-thirds percent.
But the disease is not going away - it is alive and well in River City and all of Kentucky. The latest statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control show 3,976 AIDS cases in Kentucky of which 3,427 are male and 549 female. The distribution of new AIDS cases by race/ethnicity reported in Kentucky total 305 with 65% being White, 30% being Black, 4% being Hispanic, and 1% being American Indian. The 18 to 35 age group is the fastest growing in numbers, but nationally more than 10% of all AIDS cases occur in people over the age of 50. Kentucky's cumulative reported deaths among persons with AIDS is 1,868. The drug assistance programs are in no way keeping up with the need. ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) is currently serving 467 clients. With almost 4,000 reported cases in Kentucky, this leaves the majority of people on a never ending waiting list.
So with the financial pot getting smaller, the direct services are being compromised for Kentucky's AIDS clients. The ASCC is constantly looking for new creative ways to be effective in meeting the crisis in our city. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue the struggle.
People may contact Janet Mann, the Director of Program Development at AIDS Interfaith Ministries of Kentuckiana, Inc (AIM) by e-mailing aimvolunteers@aol.com
Answer: Lipodystrophy is fat redistribution resulting in an altered body shape - one of the side-effects of drugs taken to combat HIV/AIDS and one of the issues discussed in support groups and counseling provided by AIM.
Question: What is lipodystrophy?
AIM is a one-stop shopping for HIV/AIDS located on the Third Floor of the 850 Building on Barret Avenue in Louisville, Kentucky. Consolidated there is the Specialty Clinic providing confidential and anonymous testing for all sexually transmitted diseases and for the HIV virus, the Jefferson County Health Department, Volunteers of America Care Coordinator Program providing case management for people living with HIV/AIDS, Volunteers of America STOP Program providing prevention case management, outreach and testing in the larger community, the HIV/AIDS Legal Project providing legal counsel for clients, and AIM. Other local HIV organizations are House of Ruth working with housing issues, the WINGS Clinic, a federally funded outpatient medical clinic for HIV positive persons, the HIV Dental Clinic, and Family & Children's Counseling Centers. All of these agencies comprise the AIDS Services Center Coalition, Inc. All services provided are free of charge. AIM was co-founded in the late 80's by Dr. James Hyde, Sr. Mary Bennett Cecil, Fr. Vernon Robertson, Jack Kersey, and Sr. Marilyn Spink. AIM is a non-profit AIDS Services Organization comprised of clergy, laity, community professionals and volunteers of all faith perspectives committed to People Living with HIV/AIDS by providing spiritual, nutritional, and emotional support in a community building context which is non-judgmental and life affirming in approach. AIM seeks to be a bridge between the HIV/AIDS and faith communities. AIM is affiliated with the national Faith in Action program of The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who responded in the mid 90's with a grant. AIM receives funding from the Ryan White CARE Act, HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS), and the Louisville AIDS Walk. AIM is an interfaith organization which strives for racial and ethnic diversity on their Board as well as always seeking input from HIV/AIDS clients. AIM continues to plan the World AIDS Day program on December 1st to insure the interfaith connection piece will continue.
AIM provides Pastoral Care and Counseling to individuals, couples, families, and close friends touched by HIV/AIDS. The current Pastoral Counselor is Linda Reynolds. Services include home and hospital chaplaincy, nursing home visitation, crisis intervention, support and counseling for end-of-life issues and grief counseling, as well as funeral and memorial services and planning. Pastoral counseling is mental health counseling that integrates the spiritual and psychological dimensions of human experiences.
Pastoral Counselors are professionals trained to address grief, bereavement, feelings of isolation, and other types of emotional and spiritual distress. Grief ministry is at the heart of care for people touched by HIV/AIDS. People living with the disease experience many losses through the course of their illness. Pastoral care and counseling attends to their feelings of loss and grief, and supports their feelings of hope. Also, grief ministry provides bereavement counseling for the family members, spouses and partners, and close friends.
An annual retreat is planned in the fall of the year and is a much-anticipated event for our clients. Most of our clientele rarely get an opportunity for an all expense paid get away weekend with time for self reflection, introspection, sharing, and socialization with their peers.
Our organization facilitates several support groups for the HIV Positive Community including Basement Conversations, a men's support group for infected and affected, in conjunction with WINGS Support Services, and A Spiritual Platform, a support group for men and women who are HIV positive. This support group helps clients evaluate and track their spiritual development. Members of this group discuss their choices, risks, personal relationships and life experiences in a non-threatening and confidential setting. Other HIV/Aids Support Groups in Louisville are KALA (Kentucky AIDS Life Alliance), SABSA (sisters and brothers surviving AIDS), and Kitchen Conversations, a women's support group with the WINGS Clinic. One of AIM's major goals is to keep HIV clients independent and self-sufficient in their homes, helping to keep families together and reduce the risk of eviction, homelessness, and/or the necessity of extended nursing facility care due to the impact of HIV/AIDS. This is done in a myriad of ways.
AIM, in conjunction with Volunteers of America Care Coordinator Program and House of Ruth, offers on-going collaborative lifeskills educational workshops for the HIV/AIDS community. Each agency sponsors four workshops a year on the third Friday of each month. The goal of the workshops is to educate HIV/AIDS infected and affected clients in order to increase self-sufficiency, self-efficacy, self-awareness, and self-advocacy. Topics for the presentations include, but are not limited to, areas of nutrition and healthy food selection, budgeting, housing and prevention of homelessness, and healthcare/medication issues. Past workshop topics have included: nutrition and self-care, alternative health methods, HIV and healthy relationships, coping with depression (holiday blues), budgeting and money management, smart shopping and purchasing power, Project Warm, landlord negotiations, employment issues, resume writing, end-of-life issues, community resources, humor and healing, exercise, and spirituality. As the Director of Program Development, I schedule, plan, develop, and implement these workshops. The workshops are usually conducted in a three-hour timeframe. Each attendee receives a hot, catered meal, a chance to win doorprizes, and a $15 Kroger gift card as incentives for participating. The workshops have one to four presenters who have an expertise in the area of the workshop theme, and average between 40-60 people in attendance. In addition to offering education and self-sufficiency, the workshops offer a social climate for relationship building and socialization.
For many years now AIM, in a joint venture with Central Presbyterian Church, provides a monthly dinner for the HIV/AIDS community and their caregivers. The Third Tuesday Night Dinner, also known as the Buddy Dinner, provides fun, food, and fellowship to approximately 50-60 adults living with the illness. This dinner began as a way for the HIV community to be supportive of each other and offer socialization to many who live very isolated lives. The dinner provides a wonderful environment for community building among our clients and creates lasting friendships that help alleviate the isolation and loneliness that can accompany the disease. The majority of AIM's clients are on very limited incomes, therefore, proper nutrition is a constant challenge. The Third Tuesday Dinner provides a healthy, nutritious, balanced dinner for our clients. Mark Baridon, the pastor, and many of their parishioners and friends of the community give countless selfless volunteer hours providing services such as shopping, setup, cooking, serving, cleanup, entertainment, incredible hospitality, and financial support. Humble servants extending God's hands in service. AIM could not provide all the direct services it does without the dedication, commitment, and support of our volunteers.
One of the most valuable components of AIM's direct client services is the Food Pantry, which is inclusive of personal care items and household cleaning supplies. This program encompasses a community-based Food Pantry where people living with HIV/AIDS may access supplemental non-perishable food items, personal care items, and household cleaning supplies. Clients, the majority whom are on fixed incomes and receive an average monthly disability check of $550 and live well below the poverty level, are eligible to receive the food and personal care supplements once a month and a $15 gift card to purchase household cleaning supplies every three months. Gift cards are used due to the lack of storage space at the AIM offices. The Pantry is stocked weekly through program funds and occasional church food drives.
The food bags distributed are nutritionally balanced and uniquely designed for the dietary needs of the HIV consumer as well as for their diabetic needs. The bags were designed by a nutritionist at the University of Louisville HIV WINGS Clinic to meet the specific needs of the HIV consumer. The food bag consist of approximately 17 items including canned meats, tuna fish, peanut butter, canned vegetables, canned fruits, boxed potatoes, boxed pasta, and cereal. The personal care bags consist of toilet paper, shampoo, feminine hygiene products, shaving cream, deodorant, soap, razors, toothpaste, and a toothbrush.
The Food Pantry has become a primary source of supplemental food for HIV clients due to food plan programs being discontinued within other HIV organizations, as well as reduction in federal food stamp programs and disability revenues. Based on the growing number of HIV cases in Kentucky coupled with the decline in other programs, the demands on the Food Pantry are ever increasing.
A unique part of the Food Pantry is the availability of delivery service to the homebound who can not manage to come into the office for supplies. The Food Pantry benefits the clients in many ways – it provides a nutritious diet, saves money on food expenditures that can then be used to pay rent, utilities, medicines, and other monthly expenses, and most importantly, helps attain and maintain self-sufficiency. AIM arranges for minor home repairs and yard work when possible. When illness is present, home maintenance and property maintenance can be a real challenge.
A major piece of the puzzle is the AIM Care Teams. AIM Care Teams were created in 1998 to help local faith communities meet the special needs of people infected and affected by HIV/AIDS. Care Teams are primarily faith community-based expressions of care and compassion to persons living with the illness. Volunteers from participating congregations are matched with individuals and families in the community who need volunteer services. By utilizing the Care Team approach real needs are met with real solutions. AIM provides trained and insured volunteers to work individually or as a team with individuals and families living with HIV/AIDS. Services may include transportation to medical appointments, grocery shopping, light housekeeping, meal preparation, laundry, pet care, yard work, child or respite care, minor home repairs, food delivery, socialization, friendly visiting and companionship, to name a few. AIM Care Teams strive to improve the quality of these deserving individuals lives. Even though the medications have prolonged the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS, the quality of life is jeopardized by the horrific side-effects from these meds such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, pain, neuropathy, weakness, fatigue, thrush, facial lesions, wasting syndrome, altered body shapes called lipodystrophy or fat redistribution, high blood sugar, high cholesterol and triglycerides, high blood pressure, and high liver enzymes. Then there is the daily indignities of being on disability and food stamps, lack of medical coverage, frustrations with pharmacies and medications not to mention feelings of despair, depression, quilt, shame, loneliness, and isolation. It is not easy for some to have to constantly ask for help and assistance. HIV/AIDS clients health very often becomes their full time job. Many average one to two medical appointments a week. One client who lives in Brooks, Kentucky, not only deals with AIDS but Hepatitis C, a recent heart attack, lung problems, skin cancers and dental problems due to side effects from his meds, and depression. In an average month he could need transportation for medical appointments with a dentist, an oncologist, an HIV specialist, a pulmonary specialist, a heart specialist, a dermatologist, and a psychiatrist.
For one week every June, AIM works as support staff with a project called Camp Heart to Heart. Camp Heart to Heart is a collaboration between Lions Camp Crescendo, AIDS Interfaith Ministries of Kentuckiana (AIM), House of Ruth, Kentucky AIDS Life Alliance (KALA), and other AIDS service organizations. Camp Heart to Heart was formed in 1999 for children living with HIV/AIDS. The camp is made possible with financial help from individuals, companies, clubs, foundations, and Lions members. Camp Heart to Heart is open to all children ages 5-12 who are living in the shadow of HIV or AIDS. This includes kids who have HIV/AIDS, those who have a HIV positive family member, or have lost a family member to AIDS. The camp objectives are to provide a traditional lifetime camping experience for these special children, to promote social growth, self-confidence, and self-reliance, to provide an opportunity to share with their peers, and to provide opportunities for creative expression. The activities include swimming, arts and crafts, paddle boating on the lake, a field trip, campfire storytelling, sports, fishing, talent show and skits, an awards program, and much, much more. This year the camp had 63 happy campers. Besides providing a wonderful experience for the children, it also provides a respite for their parents and caregivers for a week.
I feel AIM has been successful in their mission. We have had very good attendance at our workshops, dinners, and retreats. We have provided transportation to medical appointments, dental clinics, grocery shopping, etc. We had 50 clients at one of our retreats last year. At the closing ritual it was very moving and rewarding to hear the participants speak from their hearts about their experience. One gentleman said he didn't realize how empty he was until he got filled back up that weekend. Another spoke of his depression lifting and feeling hopeful once again. And many spoke to making new friendships and renewing old ones that broke through the isolation and loneliness they were feeling.
But funding remains a constant issue for the local HIV organizations. Grants are drying up and the current thinking very often is that AIDS is a manageable disease with new medications that keep everything in check. No problem. But these are misnomers. In the past, the Louisville AIDS Walk has been a major source of funding for the ASCC organizations. In its hayday there were 4,000 plus walkers and revenue of over $300,000. In recent years the walkers are down by half with the funds down by two-thirds percent.
But the disease is not going away - it is alive and well in River City and all of Kentucky. The latest statistics from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control show 3,976 AIDS cases in Kentucky of which 3,427 are male and 549 female. The distribution of new AIDS cases by race/ethnicity reported in Kentucky total 305 with 65% being White, 30% being Black, 4% being Hispanic, and 1% being American Indian. The 18 to 35 age group is the fastest growing in numbers, but nationally more than 10% of all AIDS cases occur in people over the age of 50. Kentucky's cumulative reported deaths among persons with AIDS is 1,868. The drug assistance programs are in no way keeping up with the need. ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) is currently serving 467 clients. With almost 4,000 reported cases in Kentucky, this leaves the majority of people on a never ending waiting list.
So with the financial pot getting smaller, the direct services are being compromised for Kentucky's AIDS clients. The ASCC is constantly looking for new creative ways to be effective in meeting the crisis in our city. Please keep us in your prayers as we continue the struggle.
People may contact Janet Mann, the Director of Program Development at AIDS Interfaith Ministries of Kentuckiana, Inc (AIM) by e-mailing aimvolunteers@aol.com
Answer: Lipodystrophy is fat redistribution resulting in an altered body shape - one of the side-effects of drugs taken to combat HIV/AIDS and one of the issues discussed in support groups and counseling provided by AIM.