Latino Family Services Revives Prevention Outreach

Michigan HIV News Summer 2001 Issue Feature

According to the 2000 census, Hispanics are the fastest growing racial/cultural group in the US population. In southeastern Michigan, where the Latino population grew 52% since the 1990 census, there are now two programs that specifically target this group for HIV prevention efforts. Latino Family Services, located in the heart of the Spanish speaking southwest side of Detroit, has a revived program under a new title with a new director.

 

Latino Family Services (LFS) got its harm reduction van up and running again in December, after a period of hibernation, using dedicated volunteer staff and donated supplies. Leading this effort was an energetic and enthusiastic duo, Norma Negron and Kathryn (Kathy) Lindblad. Negron had been hired seven months prior to head up the women’s program at LFS, a job that quickly expanded to include the seniors program and transportation. In her “spare time” this young mother, who looks more like someone from Wall Street than “street wise,” decided to volunteer to get the van up and running again. She enlisted the support of Lindblad, who was the Visiting Nurse Association HIV Outreach Coordinator at the time. The two got to know each other as colleagues when Negron worked for the Central Diagnostic and Referral Services (CDRS) for substance abuse at the Detroit Health Department.

 

When LFS decided to create a new department this year, Prevention Programs and Health Education – an umbrella that would include HIV prevention – Lindblad was the obvious candidate to direct it. She has been fighting the AIDS battle since 1984 and is a familiar face to those involved in statewide community planning.

 

Lindblad is very emphatic that this new department provides the correct approach for HIV prevention in the Latino community. The program covers a wide-spectrum of health concerns, many of which take priority over HIV in neighborhoods as poor as the one LFS is housed in.

 

Along with the new program’s expanded services, their space has grown and has a fresh coat of paint. There are now several small, comfortable and private offices for HIV counseling and testing.

 

Together Negron and Lindblad are addressing the issues of HIV prevention within a framework that is non-threatening to the community. And in ways you would never expect, they are involving the community. Negron, for example, has her senior group putting together the wound care packets to be handed out on the van.

 

These two women are still volunteering their time for the harm reduction van, while expanding the services of the van to address the greater health education needs and referral issues of the community. Lindblad is quick to point out, however, that they do not provide medical treatment, just education and supplies such as the wound care kits, along with sterile syringes.

 

The new program connects the people who are reached on the street with programs at LFS and others offered to the community. “The van is not a syringe exchange program,” said Lindblad. “It is a health education van. The whole idea was to reframe everything, so that it was broader and actually reached the people we needed to reach.”

 

Recent research has indicated that about 15-20% of drugs users get their syringes from family members who are diabetic, according to Lindblad. “So we started telling people, ‘If you’re diabetic and you can’t afford new syringes you can get them on the van.’

 

“When it was just needle-exchange, people thought the only people who should get on the van are those whose main issue was heroin,” said Lindblad. But now they talk a lot about crack, where the issue is sex. Those people get on the van to get condoms.

 

According to Lindblad, there is a new wave of crack users who access the van. Many of these are female sex workers. One of their major health issues lately is safety. “There are five deaths, we know of, that are due to violence,” said Lindblad. So the women have initiated an informal safety program.

 

The van now has five scheduled sites on three days. The vehicle’s insurance and gas are provided by the Michigan AIDS Fund, which originally donated the van. But all of the staff continues to be volunteer, and all supplies are donated.

 

Some of the people who access the van then come in to the office for services. Those who need transportation can call Negron to arrange it. “They come in to see the doctor,” said Negron. Detroit Health Care for the Homeless provides a doctor one day a week to LFS.

 

While the van can provide a certain amount of outreach into the community, both Negron and Lindblad would like to have funding to be able to do more outreach. They would like to have more Spanish-speaking service providers within the community. Both language and neighborhood boundaries create real barriers for their clients to access services outside southwest Detroit. But at the moment they rely on donations and collaboration with other agencies to try to get their clients what they need.

 

Lindblad managed to get CDRS to send someone who speaks Spanish to LFS to do intake for substance abuse treatment that is accessible to the Hispanic community. She pointed out that the law requires that special accommodation be provided for people with limited English proficiency. LFS now also has five day-treatment groups on-site.

 

LFS has a program for young women, called Star, which is a short-term afternoon program to help with empowerment and life skills, coordinated by Mitzi Cortez.  “They come in six-month cycles,” said Negron, “and there’s a graduation at the end of the six months.” One of the components is HIV/STD education, which uses outside speakers coordinated by Monique Green from the MDCH Title IV program.

 

So, while you won’t see a big sign anywhere that says HIV/AIDS, you can be sure that prevention and intervention activities are now alive and well at LFS. For more information, you can reach Negron or Lindblad at (313) 841-7380.