cascade aids project

Tyler TerMeer will depart CAP to head up the San Francisco AIDS Foundation at the end of January.

LGBT Health Awareness Week is a call to action for community members, advocates, service providers, and governmental officials to recognize health and wellness as an essential part of the social justice movement for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals, families and the wider community.

November 29, 2012 -- A new set of draft recommendations would make HIV tests as routine as blood sugar screenings or cholesterol tests – at least in theory. Earlier this month, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force released draft recommendations that HIV testing become routine for everyone between the ages of 15 and 65 – regardless of whether they are considered high risk for infection.

May 14, 2012 -- Four years ago, public health officials in Oregon developed a program for adolescent sexual health that national experts are now pointing to as a blueprint.“I think what we find interesting about the Oregon program just to be very upfront is not just that it's a strong one, but that it's a leading one,” said William Smith, executive director of the National Coalitionof STD Directors in Washington, D.C.

May 1, 2012 – When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced it was changing the funding algorithm for HIV prevention last year, health officials knew they’d see a reduction infunds because Oregon is considered a low-prevalence state.What was uncertain, however, was how the Oregon Health Authority would distribute those funds to county health departments.

February 22, 2012—Both the House and Senate have unanimously passed a bill that will make HIV testing a part of routine blood work and other lab tests performed by a physician or hospital. That change is expected to reduce the social stigma associated with HIV, transmission of the disease, as well as increase the number of people who are tested, according to legislators, providers and advocates of those living with HIV.

January 30, 2012 -- New HIV screening rules coming before the February session represent a complete turnaround in the strategy of advocates for people suffering from the 30-year-old virus causing immune system deficiency. To protect HIV patients from discrimination, state lawmakers in the 1990s passed a series of laws that now require special forms for consenting to an HIV test and extra layers of bureaucracy for transferring HIV-related patient data. Under proposed legislation, patients would no longer have to give specific informed consent for an HIV test.

January 24, 2012 -- Syringe exchange programs are unlikely to suffer major financial impact as a result of a Congressional vote in December that halted federal funding. “It's actually going to have minimal impact,” said Kathy Oliver, executive director of Outside In, which has been operating a needle exchange since 1989. “It's a giant step backward in terms of public policy.”

November 17, 2011 – Nine healthcare organizations – most of which advocate for people with chronic illnesses – are speaking up about proposed cuts to Medicare. A federal deficit “supercommittee” has one week left to cut $1.2 trillion within the next decade. While that committee may or may not meet its November 23 deadline, Medicare cuts are on the table.