Get Support Living with HIV
HIV Support Services
Testing positive for HIV can be a scary, isolating experience, but you should never be expected to go it alone. Your HIV is manageable, and when you have a medical, emotional and systemic support system in place, you can look forward to a full, happy life for both yourself and any future partners you may have.
At Allies for Health + Wellbeing, we provide comprehensive resources for anyone who is living with HIV. If you are living with HIV, you can access a range of services to help you with everything from understanding your diagnosis to making sure you get enough to eat. Your trust is extremely important to us, and your experience at Allies will always be compassionate, friendly, and judgment-free.
Allies HIV support services are usually free and always confidential. If you’re ready to get the support you need to start living the life you deserve, don’t wait. Schedule your first appointment with us today!
Allies – Usually Free, Always Confidential
Comprehensive HIV Support Services
At Allies for Health + Wellbeing, we make getting started with our HIV support services as easy as possible. Once you schedule your first appointment with us, you’ll go through a simple intake process with our team. When that’s done, as a client of our Ryan White program, you’ll be eligible for all of the following services:
- Case Management: A lot goes into effectively managing your HIV, but you don’t have to do it alone. Allies’ medical case managers are here to help you access the services, develop tools and overcome the challenges you may face, so that you can maximize your health.
- Support Groups: Case managed clients can meet with others to gain community support as they navigate their health care needs, fight stigma, and seek connections.
- Legal Services: You can get help with civil legal needs such as a disability claim or appeal, a landlord/tenant issue, or estate documents like wills and living wills.
- Supportive Housing: Allies provides HUD-based housing assistance for people living with HIV, housing 39 individuals living with HIV and their families. Houseless people can apply for this program when there are openings.
- Emergency Financial Assistance: If you are at risk of homelessness, or have received a utility shut off notice, Allies will work with you to resolve the problem, and may be able to provide one-time financial assistance for qualifying needs.
- Transportation Assistance: Don’t let the cost of travel keep you from keeping your medical or mental health appointments. You can get bus tickets or mileage reimbursement forms from Allies for qualifying appointments.
- Food Pantry: Once a month, you can get groceries from Allies’ food pantry, which is stocked with fresh, frozen and canned/boxed items, including meats, dairy, vegetables, grains, personal care items and nutritional supplements. You can receive up to four grocery bags. The food pantry currently is available by appointment and on Sundays from noon to 3:45 p.m. Please call 412-345-0584 to schedule a time to visit the food pantry.
- Helping Hands support group: The Helping Hands group meets once a month and offers people newly diagnosed with HIV a space to connect with peers and to receive the support and encouragement they need. This group is facilitated by Crystal McKee, Linkage to Care coordinator. For more information or to sign up, call 412-345-0577.
While the previous services are available to those enrolled in our Ryan White program, anyone living with HIV - whether they are a Ryan White client or not - can take advantage of these Allies services:
- Medical Care: Our medical clinic providers are highly trained in diagnosing and treating HIV and are up-to-date on the latest treatment options. You can trust that your provider at Allies will see you as a whole person and will respect that you are the expert of your own experience while offering the highest standard of medical care.
- Mental Health Therapy: Mental health and physical health go hand in hand, especially for those living with HIV. Allies’ therapists are licensed professional counselors and certified addictions counselors. Our therapists have experience working with depression and anxiety, medication assisted therapy, trauma care, including EMDR, and substance use disorder treatment.
- Pharmacy Services: Allies Pharmacy is now open to serve you! Get your medications from our expert pharmacist while visiting Allies for your medical or case management services. We also can get you signed up for cost-saving programs. Prefer to have your medications delivered to your home? You can work with Allies Pharmacy or our contract pharmacy service to have your medication sent straight to you. We want to make it as easy as possible for you to stay adherent to your regimen.
Are You Eligible?
HIV Support in Pittsburgh, PA
Allies provides all of these HIV support services to those who are living with HIV and who reside in the following Pennsylvania counties:
- Allegheny
- Armstrong
- Beaver
- Butler
- Cambria
- Fayette
- Greene
- Indiana
- Somerset
- Washington
- Westmoreland
To verify your eligibility, just give us a call at 412-252-1553 or our toll free number 1-888-204-8821 and ask to speak to the Intake Case Manager, who will help you determine if you qualify. You will need the following documentation to verify your eligibility:
- HIV positive diagnosis
- Verification of identity
- Verification of residency
- Verification of household income (500% of federal poverty level)
Frequently Asked Questions
What is HIV/AIDS?
HIV stands for Human Immunodeficiency Virus. HIV is a virus that weakens the body’s defense (immune) system until it can no longer fight off illnesses, such as pneumonia, tuberculosis, cancerous tumors and others. HIV attacks CD4 cells (T cells), which direct the body’s immune system to defend against infection. Unlike some other viruses, the human body can’t get rid of HIV completely, even with treatment.
While some report cold or flu-like symptoms, many people infected with HIV show no symptoms at all. The only way to know for sure whether you have HIV is to get tested. Knowing your status is important because it helps you make healthy decisions to prevent getting or transmitting HIV. HIV affects everyone differently.
A person is considered to have AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome) when HIV seriously damages the immune system. In the U.S., an HIV-infected person receives a diagnosis of AIDS when his or her CD4 count is less than 200 or if diagnosed with a specific illness. (An average CD4 cell count in a healthy person is 1,150.)
There is no cure for HIV or AIDS, but there are effective treatments for managing HIV. With proper medical care, HIV can be controlled. Treatment for HIV is called antiretroviral therapy or ART. If taken the right way, every day, ART can dramatically prolong the lives of many people infected with HIV, keep them healthy, and greatly lower their chance of infecting others. Before the introduction of ART in the mid-1990s, people with HIV could progress to AIDS (the last stage of HIV infection) in a few years. Today, someone diagnosed with HIV and treated before the disease is far advanced can live nearly as long as someone who does not have HIV.
What’s the best way to protect myself from HIV?
It’s very important to remember that you cannot get HIV simply from making contact with a person who is living with HIV. You cannot get HIV from a person living with HIV by working together, playing sports, shaking hands, hugging, closed-mouth kissing, sharing drinking glasses, eating utensils or towels, using the same wash water, drinking fountain or toilet, swimming in the same pool; or coming into contact with the person’s sneezes, coughs, tears, or sweat. You also don’t get HIV from bug bites or by donating blood.
The best way to actually stay protected against HIV is to go on a daily regimen of PrEP, a medication designed to block the spread of the virus should you come in contact with it during sexual intercourse. If you’re having sex that can put you at risk, go on PrEP today! Allies is happy to help you get started.
Do you provide financial assistance for HIV patients?
Yes! Most Allies services come at little to no cost. Additionally, we provide financial assistance in order to keep people living with HIV housed, fed, and living with working utilities.