Peers support families living with HIV at Christie’s Place
History
Christie Torres came to San Diego when she was eighteen. There she met her husband Angel, a former injection drug user, and in 1984 Christie gave birth to a son Christopher. Shortly after her son’s birth, Christie became very ill and was diagnosed as HIV positive. Miraculously her son was not infected despite the lack of medications to prevent mother-to-child transmission at that time.
In 1984, HIV was still called Gay-Related Infectious Disease, and few resources were available for HIV-positive women. Irene and Doug Milton, volunteers at a community-based organization providing services to people living with HIV/AIDS, partnered with Christie to provide support to her and her family. The bond between Christie and the Miltons became so strong that the Miltons eventually adopted Christie legally. In 1992 Christie’s husband passed away as a result of complications due to AIDS. Christie became a strong advocate for women with HIV/AIDS. She advocated not only for HIV-positive women but also for their affected families. Christie passed away in 1994.
Two years later, Irene Milton co-founded Christie’s Place, realizing Christie’s dream of a haven where HIV-positive women and their families can turn for practical support, encouragement, and connection.
Model
Christie’s Place is a Ryan White Part A and Part D (partial) grantee. It was founded on a peer-based model. According to Executive Director Elizabeth Brosnan, “A big part of what we do here is foster self-empowerment and support women to take an active role in their own health care and treatment.”
The center offers clients and their families a wide range of services including clinical case management, peer mentoring, mental health services, treatment education, support groups, child care, counseling for individuals, children, families and couples, and community outreach and advocacy. Christie’s Place also offers referrals to free holistic health services (including chiropractic and acupuncture healing). The center offers clients a variety of resources, from HIV legal services to computer access. Christie’s Place expands its reach through strong relationships and rapport with other agencies. “If clients need a service that we do not provide directly, we have a partner in the community who comes on site to deliver that service,” says Brosnan.
The peer has always been the most critical piece for us. She is able to bridge the gap for clients who need services and look at the client more holistically.
In addition to the location in San Diego, Christie’s Place expands its reach to more rural clients through four outstations within the county. Because of the proximity to Mexico, Christie’s Place serves a large Latina population, and most of the staff is bilingual English and Spanish, with one monolingual Spanish peer. The Christie’s Place website and print materials are produced in both languages. Although the primary focus is on women and their children, men—both gay and straight—and transgender clients are also welcome. According to Brosnan, “AIDS doesn’t discriminate, and neither do we.”
Peer Roles & Responsibilities
“The peer has always been the most critical piece for us,” comments Brosnan. “She is able to bridge the gap for clients who need services and look at the client more holistically.”
Christie’s Place currently has 4 paid peers and 20 volunteer peers, mostly women. These peers or “case workers” provide support services, information, referrals, counseling and follow up to clients. Case workers work in coordination with case managers or independently, depending on the client’s needs. They may also fill a variety of roles including facilitation of support groups and events, social advocacy, and outreach and education.
Peers participate in a number of trainings (including a Lotus Project training) as well as a 12-hour new hire training conducted by Christie’s Place staff. Additionally, once a month the center is closed to allow peers to engage in continuing education sessions that address relevant topics and issues.
Collaborating Organizations
“We collaborate with every AIDS service or community organization you can think of because we want to make sure that at any key point of entry where a woman might show up, the organization has some capacity to service her and make sure that they refer her to us to address her needs,“ explains Brosnan.
In addition to Ryan White Part A funding, Christie’s Place receives funding from Alliance Healthcare Foundation, San Diego HIV Funding Collaborative, the Ms. Foundation for Women, the Women and AIDS fund, QualComm, Macy’s, Kaiser Permanente, Broadway Cares Equity Fights AIDS, County Employees Charitable Organization (CECO), the county of San Diego, the city of San Diego, and several church groups.
Every three months Christie’s Place holds a “Point of Entry” event, an open house for potential collaborating organizations, donors, volunteers and board members to help build and strengthen these relationships.
Challenges and Accomplishments
- A needs assessment revealed that clients wanted case management, mental health, and substance abuse services to be in-house. The staff sought and received funding from Ryan White and Alliance Healthcare Foundation to bring these services online and now provide these services on site.
- Christie’s Place was experiencing relapse and burnout among its peers. In response, the peer role was recast as a part-time position and clinical supervisor was hired to provide support and peers help deal with issues as they arise.
- Evaluation is an ongoing challenge—through funding from Alliance Healthcare Foundation, Christie’s Place is hiring an evaluator to explore ways of using qualitative data to evaluate the impact of peers on clients’ quality of life.
- What started as a small grassroots organization has grown into a comprehensive support center, serving over 1,000 women, children and families annually.
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