stephanie heald

On July 11, 2014, WHP published a study titled, “An Expressive Therapy Group Disclosure Intervention for Women Living With HIV Improves Social Support, Self-efficacy, and the Safety and Quality of Relationships: A Qualitative Analysis” in the Journal of the Association of Nurses in AIDS Care (JANAC).

We are very excited to have released this new publication describing an effective intervention to help women living with HIV safely and voluntarily disclose their HIV status. It was our hypothesis that HIV disclosure for many women could reduce isolation and lead to social support that would allow them to realize their inherent health and power. WHP partnered with Rhodessa Jones and The Medea Project to use her long-standing method of helping women develop the skills and confidence to tell their stories publicly. Together, we realized her method was particularly powerful for women living with HIV because their stories include being HIV positive and, for many of them, a lifelong history of trauma. The results of the study confirm that overcoming isolation has transformative health impacts on women living with HIV.

For WHP, this study represents one milestone towards creating a more effective model of Trauma-informed primary care.

Read the Full-Text of the Study here.
Read the UCSF Press Release here.

Today, on National Women and Girls HIV/AIDS Awareness Day, WHP salutes the courage and resilience of women and girls living with HIV. Every day, we are inspired by their power to overcome stigma, to embrace one another in support and solidarity, and to lead us all towards self-acceptance, social justice, and real health and wellbeing.

Today, we also strongly encourage the President and Congress to reconsider the shocking decision last week to completely eliminate funding for the Ryan White Part D program. This highly successful program is the single part of the Congressional Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program that, since 1994, has provided support for medical care, drug treatment and support services specifically to low-income women, girls, families and children. In a statement, WHP director Edward Machtinger said “I’m stunned by this short-sighted decision. Ryan White Part D has been the catalyst, and crucial source of funding, for coalitions of programs in cities throughout the United States to provide highly effective, cost-efficient care that addresses the unique needs of low-income women and girls living with HIV. It seems that the remarkable success of Part D–funded programs in preventing transmission of HIV to infants has led the government to abandon its simultaneous commitment to sustain the health of their mothers, and other adult women living with HIV, most of whom are low income women of color”.

WHP will be working to protect this crucial funding. Stay tuned for how you can help advocate for women and girls living with HIV.