Wellness Center

The W.C. is coming!

APLA has announced plans to open a health and wellness center for gay men of color in South Los Angeles under a three-year, $1.5 million contract with the California Department of Public Health’s Office of AIDS and the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Health’s Office of AIDS Programs and Policy (OAPP).

The new center will offer sexually transmitted disease (STD) testing and treatment, HIV testing and referrals, prevention counseling, and drug abuse screening and treatment, among other services. Dr. Wilbert Jordan, an APLA board member who operates the OASIS Clinic for HIV-positive patients in South Los Angeles, will serve as the center’s medical director.

“This funding award is an important acknowledgement of the need for comprehensive health and wellness programs for underserved populations in South Los Angeles,” explained OAPP Director Mario Pérez.

Men of color who have sex with men remain at heightened risk for HIV both nationwide and in Los Angeles.

“AIDS Project Los Angeles applauds the State for prioritizing the health and wellness of gay men of color,” said Vallerie Wagner, the Director of Education at APLA, who will run the new center. “With this vital funding, we hope to reverse the unacceptably high rates of HIV infection among black gay men and take direct aim at the stigma, homophobia and lack of access to services that too often compromise their well being.”

A 2005, five-city study of men who have sex with men (MSM) by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that 46 percent of black men in the study were infected with HIV compared to 21 percent of white men and 17 percent of Latinos. More than half of new infections among black MSM occur in young men aged 13–29, and knowledge of HIV status among HIV-infected black MSM is particularly low.

In Los Angeles, where 81 percent of men living with AIDS are MSM, black MSM are at highest risk of all ethnicities.

“The Office of AIDS is committed to an aggressive and sustained effort to combat HIV among gay men of color,” said Dr. Michelle Roland, MD, chief of the Office of AIDS. “We must direct our resources to groups at highest risk so that we increase HIV awareness, prevent new infections and get those living with the disease into care and treatment early enough to prolong their lives.”

Check back here for more information as this project develops.

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