Go to the web sites listed below to learn more about the range of public policy and funding issues facing organizations working with HIV.
State-Focused Organizations
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
SFAF is a leading HIV prevention and care services organization and a well-respected and influential HIV public policy development and advocacy group.
HIV Advocacy Network (HAN) is the grassroots program of the foundation that organizes HIV service providers, AIDS advocates, and people living with and affected by HIV in Northern California to promote legislative action and public policies that address the needs of our communities.
Nationally-Focused Organizations
AIDS Action
One of the leading HIV advocacy and lobbying organizations. An extremely detailed and user-friendly site.
HIV InSite
Run by the University of California San Francisco, HIV InSite is a large, comprehensive resource covering the full range of HIV-related topics.
National Association of State and Territorial AIDS Directors
NASTAD is a key membership and advocacy organization for the health department officials who run the AIDS programs in their respective states.
National Minority AIDS Council
NMAC provides technical assistance and skills-building to agencies working within communities of color, and advocates around HIV-related issues affecting these communities.
For your convenience, here is a reprint of the article on page one.
Background on HIV, Psychological Support, and Funding
A person's emotional state affects how well he or she can cope with being HIV-positive or act to remain HIV-negative. Yet "mental health" and "psychological support" services—individual counseling, support groups, and workshops such as the ones offered by the AIDS Health Project—are often undervalued by the politicians and policy makers who make decide how to fund these important programs.
AHP takes seriously its responsibility to defend the value of these services because counseling and support help both HIV-positive and HIV-negative people deal with the immense challenges they face. As their lives are turned upside-down, people with HIV must come to new understandings about medical care, future goals, emotional intimacy, sexual activity, and relationships with family and friends. As the epidemic stretches on, HIV-negative people must sustain over the course of a lifetime the balance between HIV risk reduction and their own needs for intimacy and desires for a satisfying sex life.
But we know that the goals of both HIV-positive and HIV-negative people are easily undermined by their emotional responses to HIV and the epidemic. Depression, anxiety, hopelessness, loneliness, grief, and internalized homophobia or racism are only a few of the powerful psychological conditions that may threaten physical and emotional health and lead to substance abuse and unprotected sex.
Counseling and support group services help people weather all of these challenges. And research shows that these "mental health" services are as important as medical ones in dealing with the epidemic.
