Beginning in the 1980’s, the world has lived in fear of the mortality rates associated HIV/AIDS. This pandemic is the catalyst for heart-wrenching helplessness, hopelessness and paranoia. Fortunately the mortality rates are significant lower and those years earlier years are no longer the emotional and scientific descriptors due to today’s advancements in HIV Care and Prevention. Unfortunately, there is still no cure for the HIV infection, but pharmaceutical and medical advancements now report empirical evidence that with proper long-term care, one’s life span can be just as long as someone not living with HIV.
Another unfortunate reality for people living with HIV is stigma. Yes, there are still people who fear people living with HIV. When one understands the modes of HIV transmission and how to minimize transmission risks, the fear vanishes. HIV is a chronic disease, but it doesn’t have to be a fatal diagnosis and prognosis. Life opportunities are still possible like having a career, having a romantic relationship, parenthood and having a loving community of support and acceptance.
People living with HIV want to be loved and accepted in spite of a HIV positive diagnosis. Taking that risk to disclose one’s positive HIV status to a romantic partner, family member, friend, work associate or social circle requires self-confidence and the willingness to wager that one will receive unconditional acceptance. The fears of rejection, be they the stories of others who have experienced rejection or intuitively generated fears of what might happen after disclosure, immobilize many people living with HIV from seeking or staying in care.
At Bond Community Health Center, we understand the stigmas, the cultural differences, the lingering fears from the earlier days of HIV, and the secrecy that encapsulates all of the connotations of what HIV/AIDS evokes in others and in oneself. Be assured that Bond Community Health Center’s patient privacy protocols are adhered to at all times. The Care Team of professionals want you to know that you can trust them and the entire staff of Bond Community Health Center to protect your privacy and respect your cultural and lifestyle identities.
The Care Team practices the most effective, current clinical protocols for treating individuals living with HIV. They stay current with the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, the Health Resources and Services Administration, the Florida Department of Health, the National Institutes of Health – National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases, the American Academy of HIV Medicine and the AIDS Education Training Center. The HIV Care and Prevention program undergoes rigorous audits at the federal and state levels of health care administration. The HIV Care and Prevention Program engages in quality assurance and improvement exercises to continually strengthen the productivity and effectiveness of the Program.
Just because Bond is a community health center doesn’t mean that you are sacrificing your quality of care. There is no compromising. The BCHC quality of care is equal to if not better than care at private or larger health care practices. This community health center practices a health care model of providing high quality, patient centered primary care medicine regardless of the individual’s ability to pay for services rendered. Simply, you get exceptional HIV care at Bond Community Health Center.
Healthcare can be very costly to the point that some people delay seeking care because of nominal financial resources. At Bond Community Health Center, we contain your health care costs using federal, state and municipal grants; personal insurance plans, community partners and philanthropic donations to lower, if not entirely remove medical costs as a barrier to accessing and retention in care.
Bond Community Health Center offers HIV care, confidential HIV rapid counseling and testing, HIV Prevention and Risk Reduction products and education to the surrounding 8 counties that comprise the North-Florida Big Bend area. Allow Bond CHC to be your HIV primary care home because your life matters, and you matter to us.
