EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR LANCE TOMA ON HIS TIME AT USCA

From left: Dr. Ron Valdisseri, Lance Toma, Dr. Howard Koh, Dr. Kathie Hiers, and Ed Tepporn.

The United States Conference on AIDS 2010 (USCA) in Orlando, FL, highlighted two key themes this year, the ADAP crisis and the National HIV/AIDS Strategy. What I appreciated about the conference this year was the presence of several key members of the President's staff to voice their plans and efforts to impact the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the US. On September 13th, Secretary for Health & Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius addressed conference attendees of her focused attention to the crisis of ADAP and how the Affordable Care Act will expand coverage for people living with HIV/AIDS. She also spoke of her commitment to the National HIV/AIDS Strategy and expanded resources for HIV/AIDS prevention and wellness efforts for this year and even more in future years.

The following day, the Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Howard Koh and his Deputy Assistant Secretary for Health, Dr. Ron Valdiserri, held a series of meetings with national community leaders and organizations, and national HIV/AIDS networks. I was invited to attend a meeting with Dr. Koh and Dr. Valdiserri, along with Ed Tepporn from the Asian Pacific Islander American Health Forum and Kathie Hiers, CEO of AIDS Alabama and a member of the President's Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS. In this hour-long meeting, we were able to present our organizational strengths and assets, the clients we serve, the roles we are playing to contribute to the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, and the concerns we have with the Strategy.

Specifically, I spoke of our expansive HIV prevention, care, and testing programming for Asian & Pacific Islanders living with and at-risk for HIV/AIDS, our comprehensive 5 day-a-week drop-in center for the entire Transgender community of San Francisco, of our Hepatitis screening and linkage to care services, and our national capacity building programs and national advocacy efforts.

We spent time discussing the issue of housing, as he was startled by the statistic that 70% of people living with HIV/AIDS have experienced homelessness or housing instability. I also shared with him overarching concerns and issues facing HIV/AIDS organizations across the country, as I had just co-facilitated a two-day national executive directors meeting preceding USCA.

Both Ed and I spoke about the dire circumstance of HIV/AIDS services for the A&PI community, and how the NHAS only directly addressed issues of surveillance for our communities and nothing else. We emphasized the need for more resources as many of our organizations had closed their doors over the past five years. We proposed that A&PIs are a uniquely positioned community, because we are now seeing increasing rates of incidence and that this is the perfect moment for prevention resources to halt the epidemic in our community. We can be a pilot case for how an infusion of prevention resources at this point in time of a community's epidemic can dramatically suppress the epidemic before it reaches higher levels - a true test of HIV prevention efforts.

Dr. Koh ended by asking about our most effective efforts. My reply was about our comprehensive, holistic, culturally and linguistically competent approach toward meeting our communities' needs. We are providing HIV/AIDS services alongside Hepatitis services, substance abuse services, and primary care services - and this speaks to our belief that we must serve the whole person to achieve ultimate health and wellness.