Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris and the Shelby County Health Department invited community-based organizations to form the HIV Equity Coalition (HIVE Coalition) in response to the state of Tennessee cutting HIV funding.
According to a statement from the mayor’s office, the HIVE Coalition “will engage area stakeholders to discuss the current problems facing people with HIV and how Governor Bill Lee, the State of Tennessee, and Health Commissioner Ralph Alvarado’s refusal to accept nearly $10 million in federal funds for HIV care and prevention will impact patients and vulnerable populations.”
“The HIVE Coalition will also discuss ways for the community and local officials to help support organizations following the state’s destructive decision,” said the statement.
Mayor Harris was joined by representatives from the Shelby County Health Department, Friends for Life, OUTMemphis, Hope House, and the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS foundation to host a panel discussion on Zoom to not only discuss the work they are doing to help those impacted by HIV, but to share how cutting funds will disrupt their efforts.
“This is the start of our efforts, which we are committed to sustaining until our vulnerable HIV population has the level of healthcare access that we know is needed,” said Harris.
According to Jerri Green, senior policy advisor for Shelby County, there are 19,000 Tennesseans living with HIV. Green added that Shelby County ranked number three in “incidence rates of new HIV infections in the United States,” and the disease disproportionately affects those in minority populations.
“What we’re really talking about is creating equity in a space where this funding being cut is going to jeopardize that equity,” said Michelle Taylor, director of the Shelby County Health Department. “The fact that this funding is being cut is going to be devastating to the community.”
Taylor also explained that community-based organizations help the Shelby County Health Department’s outreach efforts in not only the treatment space but the prevention space as well.
Molly Quinn serves as the executive director of OUTMemphis, which launched its HIV prevention campaign 12 years ago. While the organization focuses most of its programs and services on the LGBTQ community, its HIV prevention services are open to all.
“We feel very strongly about the importance of LGBTQ experiences in our public health outcomes, which are so severely negative in this part of the country, in this part of the world,” said Quinn. “We really look forward to a time when politics are no longer a part of our public health.”
Hope House serves families that have been affected by HIV. They also have a full service social services house that provides support services and more to those living with HIV.
“Prevention is so incredibly important,” said Melissa Farrar, director of social services at Hope House. “We have babies that are not living with HIV because of prevention efforts in our community, so the prevention funding is so important for everyone in the community. It’s so important that everyone has equitable access to prevention services.”
Diane Duke, CEO of Friends For Life, explained that they initially started out as a “group of people who helped their friends die with dignity,” but her organization has come a long way thanks to prevention efforts.
“We are dependent on funds from the federal government in order for us to be successful in our mission,” said Duke.
Duke explained that they received a grant for $463,000. However, funding from the CDC qualified them for the 340B Drug Pricing Program, which according to their website, “enables covered entities to stretch scarce federal resources as far as possible, reaching more eligible patients and providing more comprehensive services.” According to Duke, that would result in losses of $1.7 million in funding annually.