Gay Men's Health Crisis

Care and support: care coordination services include the agency intake, transitional care coordination, housing assistance and Health homes services. These services all aim to comprehensively and collaboratively assess the clients' needs, link the clients to relevant and appropriate care and then to coordinate that care to ensure retention and the best possible Health outcomes. Staff regularly coordinate care with medical doctors, family members, mental Health practitioners, substance abuse counselors, lawyers, nutritionists, landlords, and other support professionals as needed. Mental Health services provide the agency and clients with Crisis intervention services when needed, but primarily focuses on short-andlong-term assistance to help clients achieve their highest level of psychological functioning while simultaneously supporting the achievement of self-determined goals. Services begin with a comprehensive biopsychosocial assessment, followed by individual, couples, family and/or group counseling. The organization offers services in-house and forges organizational partnerships to bring services out into the community. The gmhc hiv/aids hotline, the longest standing first response helpline to the aids epidemic, responds to approximately 5,000 phone calls annually with information, emotional support, and an expansive referral service. The legal and advocacy department provides legal, advocacy and short-term rental assistance to clients who are hiv positive. The program provides a range of legal services including immigration, bankruptcy, housing and entitlement assistance. The advocacy department provides advocacy services for clients having issues with entitlements such as social security, disability, Health insurance, housing and other entitlements. The short-term rental assistance program provides rental assistance and case management services to individuals with a history of homelessness or who are currently homeless and need assistance with rental payments, broker's fees and security deposits to secure affordable and safe housing.the representative payee program provides hands-on financial management assistance for individuals in need, who would otherwise have difficulties managing their own personal finances. Account management and bill-paying are supplemented by financial education, to support the growing self-sufficiency of high-need clients.

Public policy, information and advocacy: the public affairs and policy department supports systemic hiv prevention by advocating for fair, effective and evidence-based hiv prevention policies at the federal, state and city levels.the public policy department aims to advance an hiv prevention agenda that promotes individual behavioral changes while acknowledging structural factors such as gender and racial inequality, poverty, anti-gay stigma, undocumented immigration status and lack of access to Health care.the organization's clients and members of the community are invited to participate in the public policy's client action center and are the true driving force behind the organization's policy and advocacy work. The action center serves as a center for community organizing and advocacy activities while building participants' leadershipskills. This high level of participation and organizational influence by clients and the community helps to ensure that the organization is constantly working to serve its target populations as effectively and creatively as possible.

Prevention and education: the prevention department provides hiv prevention services to clients living with hiv and aids and those at-risk for hiv and stis. The department seeks to ensure that clients living with hiv/aids and unaware of their status have access to Health care and supportive services and that clients who are hiv negative or at-risk have access to prevention services. The department provides the following services including hiv, syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia testing, linkage to care services, access and referral to pre-exposure prophylaxis (prep) and post exposure prophylaxis (pep) referrals for supportive andmedical services regardless of their hiv status, evidence-based interventions targeted to youth and young adults, which includes the social and the clubhouse, short-term counseling which includes individual counseling, pastoral counseling and support groups.while substance abuse services are embedded and integrated within the organization's mental Health services, they are also offered as a primary service within the women's care, prevention and support services ("wpcss"). Here the organization specifically focuses on substance use and abuse issues among women of color. Services include Health and sti screenings, Health education, outreach, individual and group counseling, evidenced-based intervention, and connection to hiv testing and medical care.the nutrition, workforce development, and wellness department includes the nutrition and meals, workforce development and wellness services. These services seek to provide comprehensive and holistic services to clients living with hiv and/or aids. The nutrition programs provides individual and group level intervention with the goal of addressing food insecurity and improving overall Health through nutritional Health. The nutrition program also houses the food pantry, where clients can obtain healthy foods that aid in their achievement of better Health outcomes and addresses food insecurity. In addition to the nutrition program, this department also provides congregate meals for hiv positive individuals. The workforce development program provides comprehensive workforce development services including intake, vocational and educational assessment, benefits planning, job readiness training, internships, and job placement assistance, to decrease client reliance on public benefits and entitlements and increase self-sufficiency. The wellness program provides a variety of services including reiki, massage, hair cutting, exercise, knitting and other complementary services.