A world where World AIDS Day would honor those we’ve lost to AIDS and at the same time celebrate the disease’s eradication. While that day may not be here yet, we can take this day as an opportunity to unite in the fight against HIV and AIDS, show our support for people living with the disease and commemorate those we have lost.
The healthcare workers of 1199SEIU have been on the frontlines of the AIDS epidemic since the beginning. Val S. Dickerson is one of those workers. An 1199SEIU member, Val has been working with people living with HIV/AIDS since 1990 when he was a Buddy at Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) in New York City. The Buddy program consisted of volunteers assigned to people living with AIDS who had become GMHC clients. Val joined a few hundred volunteers who provided emotional support, companionship and handled errands and other daily tasks.
In 1991, Val started working in the AIDS unit at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where he observed patients suffering from the stigma that comes with an AIDS diagnosis. He saw people struggling to live and lead a normal life without the support of family or friends. Dickerson recalled that, “the staff in the hospital was their family and their support system. Even if it was just 8 hours of available time for them, the staff was there to provide support.”
As time went on, educational breakthroughs and advances in treatment started shaping the fight against AIDS. AIDS was no longer considered a death sentence. Speaking of his time at Columbia Presbyterian, Dickerson says: “If someone came in with an AIDS diagnosis into the AIDS unit you knew that within a year or two they were going to die. The treatments they had at the time were basically to keep people as healthy as possible, but they really weren’t fighting the disease.”
By the time Dickerson moved on to Rivington House in 1995, antiretroviral drugs were available to treat the disease. “Up until this summer, we still had several of our original members,” says Dickerson.” If they hadn’t come here or if it had been a year or two earlier, they probably wouldn’t have survived. We were just here to keep them comfortable, make their end of life as good as it could be, but with the changes in medication people started getting better. They were healthy enough to leave Rivington and get jobs, to go back into the community and be productive.”
During his time at Rivington, Val noticed a shift in the population he was working with. In the beginning he worked with mainly white gay men. After some time, his patients shifted to include men and women of different sexual orientations and ethnic backgrounds, often suffering from drug addiction and homelessness. Dickerson found comfort in the fact that Rivington House stayed true to their mission in serving the underserved and helping those who were otherwise in the outskirts of society.
Now Dickerson sees World AIDS Day as a chance to inform and educate people about AIDS, though he laments the fact that he wears a red ribbon year-round but many don’t know its significance. “People will ask me, ‘what’s that red ribbon for?’ The public has been lulled into thinking that AIDS doesn’t exist anymore,” Dickerson noted regretfully. “Liz Taylor is gone. Some of these people that were big advocates are just not here anymore, so it’s fallen off the radar.”
As healthcare workers who work hard to eliminate the spread of HIV, it’s important to also recognize the initiatives of our elected officials. In an effort to subsidize housing for low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS, Mayor de Blasio announced plans for low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS to receive housing subsidies at 30 percent of their income. The rental-assistance program from the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) tenants, most of whom live on pensions, Social Security, veterans’ benefits, or disability, have had to pay all but the last $358 of their monthly income. That leaves them about $12 a day for all other needs: food, transportation, utilities, clothing, and crucially for people with HIV or AIDS, medication. This initiative would eliminate the need of having to choose between paying their rent or paying for food and other essential costs of living.
This World AIDS Day, 1199SEIU remembers our patients and communities we have lost due to this epidemic, and salutes our members who have fought and provided care to those living with HIV/AIDS every day. We will continue to stand up and work with our communities until the rate of infection is at the only acceptable number: 0.
The healthcare workers of 1199SEIU have been on the frontlines of the AIDS epidemic since the beginning. Val S. Dickerson is one of those workers. An 1199SEIU member, Val has been working with people living with HIV/AIDS since 1990 when he was a Buddy at Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) in New York City. The Buddy program consisted of volunteers assigned to people living with AIDS who had become GMHC clients. Val joined a few hundred volunteers who provided emotional support, companionship and handled errands and other daily tasks.
In 1991, Val started working in the AIDS unit at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, where he observed patients suffering from the stigma that comes with an AIDS diagnosis. He saw people struggling to live and lead a normal life without the support of family or friends. Dickerson recalled that, “the staff in the hospital was their family and their support system. Even if it was just 8 hours of available time for them, the staff was there to provide support.”
As time went on, educational breakthroughs and advances in treatment started shaping the fight against AIDS. AIDS was no longer considered a death sentence. Speaking of his time at Columbia Presbyterian, Dickerson says: “If someone came in with an AIDS diagnosis into the AIDS unit you knew that within a year or two they were going to die. The treatments they had at the time were basically to keep people as healthy as possible, but they really weren’t fighting the disease.”
By the time Dickerson moved on to Rivington House in 1995, antiretroviral drugs were available to treat the disease. “Up until this summer, we still had several of our original members,” says Dickerson.” If they hadn’t come here or if it had been a year or two earlier, they probably wouldn’t have survived. We were just here to keep them comfortable, make their end of life as good as it could be, but with the changes in medication people started getting better. They were healthy enough to leave Rivington and get jobs, to go back into the community and be productive.”
During his time at Rivington, Val noticed a shift in the population he was working with. In the beginning he worked with mainly white gay men. After some time, his patients shifted to include men and women of different sexual orientations and ethnic backgrounds, often suffering from drug addiction and homelessness. Dickerson found comfort in the fact that Rivington House stayed true to their mission in serving the underserved and helping those who were otherwise in the outskirts of society.
Now Dickerson sees World AIDS Day as a chance to inform and educate people about AIDS, though he laments the fact that he wears a red ribbon year-round but many don’t know its significance. “People will ask me, ‘what’s that red ribbon for?’ The public has been lulled into thinking that AIDS doesn’t exist anymore,” Dickerson noted regretfully. “Liz Taylor is gone. Some of these people that were big advocates are just not here anymore, so it’s fallen off the radar.”
As healthcare workers who work hard to eliminate the spread of HIV, it’s important to also recognize the initiatives of our elected officials. In an effort to subsidize housing for low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS, Mayor de Blasio announced plans for low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS to receive housing subsidies at 30 percent of their income. The rental-assistance program from the HIV/AIDS Services Administration (HASA) tenants, most of whom live on pensions, Social Security, veterans’ benefits, or disability, have had to pay all but the last $358 of their monthly income. That leaves them about $12 a day for all other needs: food, transportation, utilities, clothing, and crucially for people with HIV or AIDS, medication. This initiative would eliminate the need of having to choose between paying their rent or paying for food and other essential costs of living.
This World AIDS Day, 1199SEIU remembers our patients and communities we have lost due to this epidemic, and salutes our members who have fought and provided care to those living with HIV/AIDS every day. We will continue to stand up and work with our communities until the rate of infection is at the only acceptable number: 0.
