A report from Christy Owens, senior director of programs

This month, I completed several phone surveys and listened a great deal to client experiences that inform me about how we are doing as an agency. When I made these phone calls, I was seeking specific information:

  • Does your therapist or case manager call you back in a timely manner?
  • Does your therapist or case manager play a helpful and supportive role in your life?

The past 18 months of phone surveys in total have revealed that our clients feel overwhelmingly that Allies case managers and therapists play a helpful and supportive role in their lives and do call them back very quickly.

Of course, this news that 99% of our clients share this opinion is a joyful dataset to report on. But clients gave me an even greater gift when I asked the open question: What else would you like me to know?

I listened to many stories this month about how people’s anxiety or PTSD symptoms got in the way of them leaving their houses for medical or therapy appointments. Clients and patients gave me insight into physical and emotional obstacles that blocked them at several points along the path toward a successful visit. As it turns out, internalized stigma and fear of HIV is one of the barriers for some people in taking the final steps out the door toward their medical visit, therapy, or HIV-related case management appointment.

It is tempting to be misled that because we have medications that – taken consistently – prevent AIDS from taking hold, our PLWH live fairly “normal” lives. In fact, I’ve heard a great deal of people say these exact words. But for many people, contracting HIV was a traumatic event that time and access to life-saving medication have not fully healed. The emotional wound itself creates just one extra layer of difficulty among all the physical difficulties of securing transportation, facing the weather, taking the time off work, finding childcare, or the dozens of other barriers faced by individuals in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Allies staff work with each individual to meet them where they are. This could mean setting up a transportation plan, helping them secure government funded childcare, or assisting them in reaching their desired medical outcomes with motivational interviewing and active listening. We are not expecting our clients’ lives to line up with some idealized version of “good” or “perfect.” Rather, we seek to be resources in the messiness of life. We seek to meet people where they are: often in their homes or communities, often at their provider offices, often in their joys and success stories, and often in their fear and pain.

I appreciate each story shared with me this month, helping me to frame the statement “my case manager or therapist is a helpful and supportive figure in my life” and bringing it alive with the measure of our true value to individuals we serve.