December 1st is World AIDS Day. The theme this year is Increasing Impact through Transparency, Accountability, and Partnerships. SRAHEC has a wonderful partnership with WellFlorida Council, which provides quality HIV care and services to North Central Florida. WellFlorida has specific outreach efforts for those diagnosed with HIV (ARTAS), as well as prevention (HIP).
ARTAS stands for Anti-Retroviral Treatment and Access to Services. It is an evidence-based, CDC-recommended program that serves people who are either newly diagnosed with HIV or who are HIV positive and have not received medical care for six months or more. WellFlorida provides ARTAS to newly diagnosed (within 6 months of diagnosis) HIV positive clients, or clients that have been out of care for 6 or more months.
With grant funding from ViiV Healthcare, WellFlorida is able to expand the reach of ARTAS to include previously diagnosed individuals who have fallen out of HIV medical care for any length of time, missed HIV-related medical appointments, and those who have recently moved or relocated here and need to be linked to local care. They have been able to successfully link over 85% of enrolled clients to HIV-related care and services.
High Impact Prevention (HIP) seeks to serve those populations facing the highest risk factors for HIV transmission. HIP holds at least 12 testing events a month. Through this program, WellFlorida offers free and painless HIV testing at various locations in Alachua and Marion County.
All of their testing events are updated online at EveryoneStopAIDSNow.org. During testing events, the HIV Prevention counselors and volunteers provide information, answer questions, and pass out goodies.
HIV.gov also provides a useful search tool to find places for HIV testing and services. https://locator.hiv.gov/.
Click here to learn more about HIV and HIV Testing.
The best thing you can do to show your support for World AIDS Day is to get tested! It’s free and only requires a simple mouth swab.
Thank you to Katherine Pizarro at WellFlorida for providing this information.
