by Anthony Baldman

Reporter

North County Health Services (NCHS) was awarded a $98,000 contract from San Diego County’s Health and Human Services Agency on Nov. 29 to provide HIV/AIDS coordinated services for North County residents at a facility located at 150 Valpreda Rd. in San Marcos, the same location as their administrative headquarters and one of their largest clinics.

Alicia Nunez-Liriano, director of HIV programming for NCHS, said the amount awarded to them in the contract was slightly more than the previous contract’s $94,000 cumulative total due to the addition of some minority AIDS initiative funding.

Nunez-Liriano said the interim contract will last until Feb. 28. Thereafter, five 12-month option years will begin plus one six-month extension. She said the contract will also require monthly progress reports to measure program compliance and effectiveness.

“We want to provide the array of services that the community has been accustomed to in previous years,” Nunez-Liriano said. “We are looking to use the funding to provide outreach to populations that perhaps are still not in care that fell out of care – people that for some reason have not maintained regular primary care visits. That’s one of the advantages of the new site is that it’s immediately next to one of our largest clinics.”

The coordinated-services contract had previously resided with North County Being Alive, but was terminated early on Sept. 30 due to “convenience,” according to Terry Cunningham, chief of the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency’s HIV, STD and Hepatitis Branch. The contract was set to expire Feb. 28, according to their records.

“The reason we canceled it for convenience was basically we knew we were going out for an RFP [request for proposal], and we needed money that would be left over from the contract to help the new contract get started,” Cunningham said. “We were aware that there had been problems with the utilization of the coordinated-services center and we decided to terminate that contract early.”

North County Being Alive originally had to rely on a $50,000 county contract due to over $1 million in cuts to federal HIV/AIDS funding in San Diego County.

North County Being Alive moved their offices from Pier View Way in Oceanside to Greenbrier Drive on Jan. 31. Nunez-Liriano said many coordinated services patients were not happy with the new location due to poor access to public transportation. The Gay & Lesbian Times reported in May that since North County Being Alive had relocated, client attendance plummeted from 147 regulars to only 20 in April. The center’s hours were cut in half, from 40 hours per week down to 20.

“The biggest problem was we had to cut it back to half the hours,” said Being Alive San Diego Executive Director Shannon Wagner. “We couldn’t staff it and keep it open full-time, so it could only be open 20 hours per week – as opposed to now it will go back up to 40. That hopefully will increase access for people as they will have twice as many hours to get in there and receive those services.”

Condition changes to the North County Coordinated Services Center contract resulted in an additional $44,000 in funding on May 10, but the facility was not being utilized to its fullest extent.

Waters-Montijo, assistant medical service administrator of the HIV, STD and Hepatitis Branch, told the Gay & Lesbian Times last May that with the increase of funding, the county was trying to bring the amount of funding to be more proportionate with the number of AIDS cases.

Wagner said Being Alive did not make a bid for the new coordinated services contract but thinks services will be better situated at NCHS.

“The North County Health Services can pull it off. They already have a facility there,” Wagner said. “It is essentially them adding a program as opposed to trying to run a full-time facility on that contract amount, which is under $100,000 per year…. North County Health already has a clinic there. They can dedicate some space to it and still do that because they would not have to incur the additional cost of another facility.”

The core services stipulated in the coordinated-services contract include access to primary medical care, case management, a walk-in center, language translation services and counseling. The funding will also support staff, space costs, some program operations and peer advocacy.

Nunez-Liriano said agencies outside of NCHS will be regularly scheduled at the coordinated services center through a memorandum of understanding to provide their services, which include a volunteer lawyer program and counseling through The Center and Christie’s Place.

Outside of the coordinated-services contract funding, NCHS’ Community Case Management Program already provides HIV-prevention education, anonymous testing and counseling to any San Diego County resident who is HIV positive or has been diagnosed with AIDS and who meets an acuity level defined by NCHS funding sources. This program is funded by the Ryan White Act Title I, II, III, and IV, and is the second largest program in the state of California. Staff operates in one or more program components, including outreach, case management, referrals, billing and clinical care.

Nunez-Liriano said the coordinated services center will be convenient to various modes of public transportation, with two bus stops located on adjacent streets. She added that there will be a commuter train stop located immediately next to the NCHS property that travels from Oceanside to Escondido starting in 2007.

The coordinated-services center will have about 1,200 face-to-face visits annually with at least 100 unduplicated clients, Nunez-Liriano estimated.

“These are just our minimum numbers. We hope that word of mouth, advertising, community presentations and very focused community outreach will also bring in more people,” she said. “It’s not just the volume but also those people who need us the most.”

She noted that one main difference in North County compared to central areas of San Diego is that there are less social venues in North County where clients can be referred for services.