Syracuse, N.Y. - A Syracuse agency that has helped Central New Yorkers with HIV and AIDS for 30 years has dropped the disease from its name because it now serves people with many other chronic illnesses.
AIDS Community Resources has changed its name to ACR Health.
The new name does not mean HIV and AIDS have gone away or that the agency is abandoning its commitment to people with HIV/AIDS. The most recent state statistics show there were 957 people in Onondaga County living with HIV or AIDS at the end of 2010.
The agency changed its name because in addition to helping people with HIV/AIDS, it recently began working with people on Medicaid suffering from asthma, heart disease, high blood pressure, serious mental illness, obesity and diabetes. If ACR had not expanded its services, the state would have cut off the funding the agency gets to serve people with HIV/AIDS, according to Michael Crinnin, the agency's executive director. "We didn't have much choice in this matter," he said.
ACR serves about 230 people with HIV or AIDS in nine counties in Central and Northern New York. It expects to take on even more people than that with other chronic illnesses.
ACR has also received a state contract to help people enroll in the state's new health insurance exchange which will open Oct. 1.
HIV, which stands for human immunodeficiency virus, is an infection that attacks the body's immune system. It is the virus that causes AIDS. AIDS, short for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, is the final stage of the HIV infection. Having AIDS means the virus has weakened the immune system to the point where the body has a difficult time fighting the infection. It can be transmitted through blood, semen, vaginal secretions and breast milk. It is most commonly transmitted through sexual contact and sharing hypodermic needles.
To accommodate the expansion of services, ACR is hiring. Its workforce will grow from about 80 to 100 people. The agency has an annual budget of $6.1 million. In addition to its headquarters in Syracuse, ACR has offices in Utica, Watertown, Canton, Auburn and Oswego.
The stigma attached to AIDS makes some people reluctant to use the agency, Crinnin said. "People with asthma and obesity don't want to be going to the AIDS agency," Crinnin said.
The label has such a negative connotation, most of the agency's clients with HIV/AIDS refuse to allow the organization to mail its newsletter and other literature to their homes, he said. They do not want relatives and friends to know they have the disease.
Some donors are unhappy because they see the name change as a betrayal of their loved ones who died of AIDS, he said.
The agency depends primarily on state money to serve people with HIV/AIDS. Two years ago the state told ACR it would continue funding that work only if the agency agreed to also serve other people with complex health care needs through New York's new Medicaid "Health Home" program.
Medicaid is the government program that provides health care for the poor and disabled. The Health Home program is part of the state's overhaul of Medicaid aimed at cutting spending. The Health Home program targets Medicaid enrollees who account for a disproportionate share of Medicaid spending.
The program's aim is to use agencies like ACR Health to make sure these individuals see their doctors and get the services they need so they don't end up in hospital emergency rooms and other institutions.
Because ACR has been doing that all along with HIV/AIDS patients it made sense to cast out a wider net to the other populations, Crinnin said.
"I used to think once there is a cure for AIDS we will be gone, but there has not been one," Crinnin said.
Statewide the number of newly diagnosed HIV cases fell 37 percent between 2002 and 2010.
Most of the new HIV infections are being detected after people without symptoms get tested. Many of them never get sick once they start taking medication, he said.
Thirty years ago many people were not diagnosed until after they got sick and the virus had advanced to AIDS. "People don't need the same kind of management today they needed when they were dying in the 1980s and 90s," Crinnin said.
When ACR started, it saw HIV/AIDS patients from all walks of life. Now Crinnin says the vast majority of clients are living in poverty. Many of them have no primary care doctors and go to hospital emergency rooms when they get sick.
"We've had a number of clients over the years say, 'HIV is the best thing that ever happened to me because finally someone is helping me,'" Crinnin said.