Although Evanston received some federal funding for its free anonymous HIV testing, Evanston Health Department officials say the money is not enough to continue testing at outreach locations used by Evanston residents and Northwestern students.
Instead, smaller groups are now receiving money to do HIV testing in Evanston. Better Existence with HIV is slated to receive $9,600 to increase community outreach in Evanston, according to Mona Grimes, director of prevention for BEHIV. Some part-time outreach workers will be able to work full time, increasing BEHIV's outreach capacity.
BEHIV currently tests about 16 to 20 people per month for HIV in Evanston. Grimes said BEHIV now hopes to test an additional 10 to 12 people each month, with a particular focus on minority groups in Evanston.
Free anonymous HIV testing by the health department, however, will be discontinued at all outreach locations, including Searle Student Health Service, the Second Baptist Church, 1717 Benson Ave., and the Levy Senior Activity Center, 1629 Chicago Ave. The program will only continue at the health department, 2100 Ridge Ave.
BEHIV now sets up temporary testing locations at barber shops, churches and soup kitchens throughout Evanston. Grimes said BEHIV is working on increasing the number of these testing locations.
"We're talking to some churches and other locations now," she said. "We're hoping to lay the foundation. Wherever people have a room where we can counsel and test, we'll test people."
The federal government has put a stronger emphasis on targeting groups at high risk of contracting the virus, so clinics such as the health department, with smaller staffs and not many high-risk patients, do not receive as much money.
Because the health department received such a small amount of outreach money this year, officials gave the funds to similar outreach programs at Evanston Hospital and BEHIV, said Jeff Erdman, a member of the Regional Implementation Group, which allots the federal funds. These programs test more of the four high-risk groups targeted by the federal government: promiscuous gay men, intravenous-drug users, high-risk heterosexuals and babies born with the virus.
The amount of funding each state receives is based on the size of its high-risk population, Erdman said. Each year, Illinois receives $4 million in grant money for HIV prevention services. RIG then divides the money among nine regions throughout the state.
"When they started to ask us to meet quotas and find these target groups, it became impossible," said Mary Scott, a public health practitioner for the health department. "Now the money goes to other community-based clinics that can find these kinds of populations."
Erdman said the department's major problem was its small staff.
"You have to decide as an organization if you have enough staff to be able to find the target you want to reach," Erdman said. "You can't just open your doors and expect those populations like (injection-drug users) to come in and test."
According to Jay Terry, the health department's director of health and human services, BEHIV and the department are trying to work together to hit the targeted groups.
"Their staff and EHD are going to sit down this month and come up with who is going to do what," he said. "We are at an interesting point with HIV. The disease is evolving and there are different groups where the infection is increasing, causing the whole public health community to re-evaluate its response to the disease."
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