As clinic social worker at Allies, Jill Maraden’s job is all about connections.
“As the clinic started to grow, there came a need for someone who could work with our primary care patients, our gender-affirming care patients,” Maraden said. “It's not just an HIV clinic; we provide these other specialty services. Those individuals also need social service assistance. I work with all our patients, not just our patients living with HIV.”
It was a connection to HIV, however, that led Maraden to her role at Allies.
“My uncle died of HIV in the early 90s, and PATF actually took care of him,” she said. “He was a client here. He used the Buddy Program, so when my dad couldn't take him to his appointments, or if he didn't have a friend who could take him, his buddy took him. Knowing my uncle was very loved and supported by his family … there were a lot of other people who did not have that. That's sort of what drew me to the work.”
Maraden hopes that she’s able to ease the path for the patients who come through Allies’ doors today, the way the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force once did for her uncle.
“There are all these other challenges people face every day, so if there is literally something I can do to someone to make their healthcare journey, their lives a little easier, I will do it,” she said. “That's the way I choose to practice social work, and that's why I do this every day. To try my very best to do the most for people.”
Maraden said her job is medically heavy and focused on care coordination.
“I'm helping coordinate referrals, making appointments, prior authorizations,” she explained. “I'm referring to outside organizations for nonmedical needs, so if someone needs help with rental assistance or something like that. It could be literally any resource. I talked to a patient the other day who asked if I knew of any queer, kid-friendly events happening in the area.”
Many of Allies’ gender-affirming care patients work with Maraden, who can help them get referrals as well as the documents they need for gender-affirming surgery. Maraden also assists patients who are applying for Pennie or Medicaid.
“If you're new to any of these programs and not coming from a healthcare background, you don't know,” she said. “If I can take some burden off them by helping them, then that's one thing off their plate.”
As she’s assisting patients, Maraden is making her own connections.
“Some of them I've known for years,” she said. “That brings me the greatest joy — just really getting to know people and having that relationship with them, where they can tell us anything and know that we're going to try our very best to help in any way that we can. That's what makes me love my job every day, even on the hard days.”
