Clinic offers services for HIV

Signature Health continues to expand its services.

As a result of receiving a $300,000 federally funded Ryan White Title A grant, Signature Health is now able to offer supportive services for people living with HIV, said Kristin Ziegler Alban, the medical case manager at the Painesville office.

“We provide medical case management services, mental health therapy, nutritional counseling and transportation services,” she said. “Getting to care appointments can be very hard for a lot of people and a lot of medical providers are in Cleveland. So, it is important to be able to provide transportation assistance to appointments.”

This Ryan White HIV/AIDS program serves residents that meet income eligibility in Lake,

Geauga and Ashtabula counties.

Alban says there is also funding to provide drug and alcohol treatment.

“We offer stellar support services and have lots of options for people at Signature Health, such as a premier chemical dependency treatment,” she said. “The program is definitively growing and there is a huge need in this community.”

According to the Ohio Department of Health HIV/ AIDS Surveillance Program’s most recent statics from 2014, there are 150 individuals in Lake County that reported an HIV diagnosis, 99 in Ashtabula

and 34 in Geauga.

Besides the growing number of diagnoses, another problem is there is a large amount of people who do not know that have it, Alban said,

“We’re working on doing early intervention and outreach service to help people who don’t know their diagnosis come into care,” she said. “We want to target that at-risk population, get them here and get them tested. An HIV diagnosis is not a death sentence, but it is a wake-up call.”

Alban emphasizes the significance of people who are living with HIV to make their appointments and take their medication as prescribed to help them become what is called virally suppressed or to decrease the virus.

“Something we know

about HIV is that if somebody can access their health care, they can live a long and healthy life,” she said. “So, this program helps individuals live longer, healthier lives and from a public health perspective, it helps prevent the virus from transmitting. It is necessary for their own personal health and for our community.”

People living with HIV are also given the opportunity to participate in the Signature Health Positive Living Group, a support group that meets at noon on the first and third Thursdays of the month at the Painesville office, 462 Chardon St.

For more information about the Ryan White HIV/ AIDS program or support group at Signature Heath, call Alban at 440-853-1501.