Lake County receives HIV grant
The Lake County Health Department/Community Health Center has received a grant to expand its early intervention health care services to HIV-positive patients, officials announced in a news release.
The $50,000 grant, which will be distributed over a three-year period, will support the department’s Medical Management Clinic serving approximately 300 residents.
The grant will assist the health department in providing targeted outreach, counseling, testing and referral, as well as a link to health care and social support services. It was one of six grants distributed in Chicago and the collar counties through the Chicago Department of Public Health as part of the Ryan White Part A funds.
“This is an opportunity for the health department to take a proactive approach to assure that anyone in Lake County who is diagnosed with HIV is quickly engaged in a health care system to address specific needs of an HIV infection, and to address the community’s need to reduce further transmission of the disease,” Executive Director Irene T. Pierce said in the release.
The grant will make it possible for the department to hire two new staff members — a counselor and a peer advocate with experience in navigating services for HIV care. These employees will help ensure patients stay in care and have a supportive health care system in which to work.
The grant will particularly help the department in providing services for minority youth in Lake County.
The health department is seeing an increase in the number of minority youth testing positive for HIV, Pierce said.
“Unfortunately, those who are unaware of their infection may not see symptoms for at least the first five years after contracting the virus, and until they develop symptoms, they may unknowingly be putting their partners at risk,” Pierce said in the news release.
She said HIV is a manageable disease and the goal of this and other programs through the health department is to protect the health of the community and residents.
Pierce pointed to epidemiological research conducted by Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, called the Northwestern Project, that investigates the effects of incarceration upon minorities who are at-risk of HIV infection without realizing so.
Research conducted in this study has strong implications to the Lake County community and this grant is expected to address some of the initial findings already being reported, she said.