Hospital receives HIV/AIDS grant funds

Healthy adults live with the promise of a life of dignity and fulfillment until a doctor diagnoses a disease that has nightmarish stories.

This is the ordeal those diagnosed with HIV must endure, according to AIDSinfo, a service of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Positive Link, a Bloomington Hospital program, is intended to help shoulder the burden on HIV and AIDS patients by paying for housing, connecting patients to doctors and offering support groups.

Positive Link’s focus is HIV testing and the care of those living with HIV or AIDS, according to Bloomington Hospital’s web site.

Many of the services this program offers are free of charge.

Positive Link assists 200 infected patients per year, said Jill Stowers, Positive Link’s program manager.
This program is funded by grants from the Indiana State Department of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Federal Department of Housing & Urban Development (HUD) and private and corporate donations, according to Bloomington Hospital’s website.

This week, Positive Link received a $228,274 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Stowers said.

Jessica Adams, a care coordinator for Positive Link, said this grant will pay the rent and utilities of HIV and AIDS patients for an entire year.

“We applied, and it’s actually taken us a few rounds,” Stowers said, referring to the grant.
Last year the state of Indiana was not able to prove to HUD that their HIV/AIDS programs merited a grant.

Because of more uniformity amongst HIV/AIDS related programs this year, Indiana’s HIV/AIDS assistance services rank in the top third in the nation, Stowers said.

Stowers said $180,000 of the grant will be used directly for housing. It will pay the rent and utilities for those infected with HIV/AIDS. Stowers said she hopes to use the grant to house 10 or 11 Indiana families this year.

“Some of our other housing money has already been used up,” Adams said. “There was really no expectation of definitely getting it, just being hopeful that we could get it.”