HIV/AIDS
Fortune's Health Services Unit provides a range of HIV/AIDS-specific services to prisoners and former prisoners, including outreach, HIV-specific case management, supportive counseling and treatment adherence. As part of our outreach efforts, staff members travel to prisons throughout New York State to conduct informational health seminars for prisoners nearing their release date. These seminars address several important topics, including Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis-C, as well as describe the full array of services that The Fortune Society offers. Seminar attendees also have the opportunity to meet with discharge planners to develop a plan for their release.
Upon arriving at Fortune, Health Services clients have an initial meeting with their counselor. After resolving any crisis needs, such as locating emergency housing and/or applying for entitlements, the counselor and client work together to develop a treatment plan that outlines their short and longer term goals. HIV-specific case management includes an immediate connection to primary care services, follow-up on doctors' visits, and support around treatment adherence. Fortune employs a full-time nurse who assists clients in following their complex treatment regimens. We also offer supportive counseling to clients and their families to help them cope emotionally and psychologically with HIV disease.
In 2005, Fortune’s Health Services Unit enrolled 201 new clients and provided them with a broad range of services, including linking 161 individuals in need of health care to a primary medical care provider and finding housing for 83 homeless clients.
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For additional information about our HIV/AIDS services, please contact Judy Juster, Director of Health and Transitional Services, at or 212-691-7554 x875.
