Many people are living with HIV in the United States. A high percentage of them live in Maryland. Some of those live in Prince George’s County, where the community of Largo is located. Since awareness about the prevalence of HIV infected people in the area became known, many agencies have located in Prince George’s County or have established organizations there. One such non-profit organization is Heart to Hand. They offer a wide range of HIV-related services to people who think they may be infected with HIV and to those who have a positive diagnosis. With the advancement of knowledge about how HIV is transmitted and contained within the human body, organizations like Heart to Hand are necessary and beneficial to the community of Largo, where it is located. Heart to Hand offers a wide range of services including HIV testing. They offer both traditional testing, which includes at least a week waiting time and point-of-service (POS) results which take about 20 minutes. Because of the HIV testing that Heart to Hand does and its many other services, it is an organization recognized for actively working to slow and stop HIV/AIDS from claiming any more lives.
Heart to Hand, Inc. is a non-profit organization located in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Its purpose is to empower communities of color through modeling healthcare systems that promote and support health and wellness. Heart to Hand came into being in 1998 because two concerned African American women wanted to give a voice to those living with HIV/AIDS. The disease was spreading throughout the Largo, Maryland community and beyond. What concerned these women, one of them Anne Wiseman, a licensed clinical professional counselor and the deputy director of Heart to Hand, was that heterosexual women were contracting HIV at an alarming rate. This is still occurring. However, Heart to Hand offers many services to help women and others who suspect they may have HIV and those who already have a diagnosis.
In 2013, the Institute for Public Health in Maryland (IPHI) and Heart to Hand established a partnership to improve outreach to community members especially those with HIV/AIDS. They wanted to ensure that all HIV positive individuals were aware of their status and were receiving medical care and other support services for it. One aspect of the care that Heart to Hand and IPHI offer is HIV testing because it is important that one know their status. Heart to Hand has become a home base for many of the IPHI workers in Largo. This collaboration between IPHI and Heart to Hand grew to other institutions as well. Now there are several other health partners involved in the initiative including Greater Baden Medical Services, Dimensions Health System, and the Prince George’s County Health Department. The initiatives are funded by AIDS United, Kaiser Permanente National Community Benefit Fund at the East Bay Community Foundation , MAC AIDS Fund, and Washington AIDS Partnership (Wiseman, 2019). These funding sources help to pay for the HIV testing and other services that Heart to Hand offer.
It is difficult to quantify the impact that Heart to Hand has on those living with HIV/AIDS in St. George’s County, Maryland. They offer counseling and referrals to other agencies with which they partner to people who live with HIV/AIDS. Wiseman is a counselor as are several others on staff. With the many partnerships that Heart to Hand has fostered, the referral process for people needing assistance with medical issues, social services, housing assistance or mental health issues is efficient and expedient. One initiative in which Heart to Hand was involved was called Total Health Partners (THP) which operated between 2012 and 2015. The Institute for Public Health Innovation (2019) says THP was specifically for Prince George’s County. It combined two projects: one was a link to care project funded by Kaiser Permanente and the other was a retention in care project funded by AIDS United, M.A.C. AIDS Fund and Washington AIDS Partnership (Institute for Public Health Innovation, 2019). These two combined projects advocated testing for HIV and Heart to Hand still offers this vital service.
Wiseman offered an example to illustrate how Heart to Hand works at the community level: a young man who was unsure of his HIV came to Heart to Hand. He was tested and the test came back positive. A few days later, he returned to Heart to Hand because his family had kicked him out of their home. He claims he contracted HIV from a heterosexual encounter, but his family thinks he must be gay. They also suggested that he may be an intravenous drug user, both of which the man denies. Heart to Hand helped him to find housing, provided counseling, and referred him to specialists who can hel
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