HIV/AIDS clinics around the state are not only experiencing a lack of funds, but also a deficiency in their ability to hire extra help, such as students.
According to the Louisiana Commission on HIV/AIDS’s report, released this year, the number of people in the state being infected by the disease has increased. At the same time, clinics are dealing with a decrease in funds to support their operations, making it more difficult to hire help for already strained facilities, said DeAnn Gruber, commission vice chair.
“[The HIV clinic at Charity Hospital in New Orleans] was looking at budget cuts in August,” Gruber said. “It survived. However, I know other clinics lost some staff.”
She said one of those clinics is Earl K. Long hospital in Baton Rouge.
Roxanne Townsend, chief operator officer at Earl K. Long, said funding for the hospital’s HIV/AIDS clinic comes from federal money and grants. Because so much of its funding comes from sources outside the state, the clinic has not experienced as many setbacks as other clinics, Townsend said.
Despite this, the clinic has cut back in hiring extra help, she said.
“We’ve had summer student workers in the past, but we couldn’t hire any this summer because of budget cuts,” Townsend said.
She said the need for student workers still exists and volunteers always are welcome.
“It takes a special expertise,” she said. “There’s no shortage of patients that need care and not everyone is willing to do it.”
Townsend said students entering this specialized field should have no problem finding jobs in the future because there are very few people who feel comfortable enough to care for HIV/AIDS patients.
St. Anthony’s, a hospice with Our Lady of the Lake, is a home for infected persons to go for care and social interaction. It has student workers for its operations but does not pay them.
Jacki Shillington, OLOL immunological support program director, said the hospital has had University volunteers before and usually has student volunteers to help out.
“We have students who work individually with patients to help with socialization or running errands, and some of them do help with treatments,” Shillington said. “They’re always non-paid because we just don’t have the funds for that.”
Gruber said aside from not being able to hire outside employees, budget cuts to these clinics could lead to cutting back specialized personnel, making it difficult to care for HIV/AIDS patients in a timely manner.
“Patients will have to start going to non-specialized clinics where people will be treating them without knowledge of the right medications to give them or possible side-effects,” she said. “It needs to be an individual that is very up-to-date on that because if they’re not, patients will have a delay on getting care.”
She said if budget cuts persist, she expects to see higher costs for hospitals and patients, because people may have to spend more time going to emergency rooms and staying longer at inpatient facilities.