In a five-year partnership with Behavior Health Services, Inc. (BHS), The Center will provide special substance abuse counseling and prevention case management services to 18- to 19-year-old men-who-have-sex-with-men (MSM) of color in the local and greater Long Beach area.
MSM is a broad term used within therapeutic and counsel speak as an umbrella term to describe any male person who engages in sex with members of the same sex, regardless of how they identify themselves. For many reasons, some men choose to or cannot prescribe with mainstream sexual identities such as homosexual or bisexual. Some of these men even refer to themselves as straight or DL (downlow) since their “main” relationship is with a woman.
BHS has seventeen treatment programs throughout Los Angeles County—and former Director of Programs at The Center and current Director of Program Development at BHS John Kirby felt that a federal grant from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) could be focused on MSM and HIV/STD and STI prevention—a perfect fit in Long Beach.
“Long Beach has the second-highest incidents of HIV in the county, only second to West Hollywood,” Kirby explained. “And there’s really not a lot being done about it.”
Our city’s HIV tests receive a positive 2.6% percent of the time, compared with the state average of 1.1%—and this new offering at The Center aims to not only curb that number, but educate those who might not even know they’re positive or carrying, for example, Hepatitis B or C, which will also be offered in a screening test at The Center.
Even further, discussion groups wrapped around the idea on how their substance abuse or sexual behavior might contribute to a deteriment in health is the key focus. Within the context of those groups, they’ll be invited to partake in further program services, specifically a twelve-week intervention with a weekly one-on-one meeting with a drug abuse counselor and a weekly one-on-one meeting with an HIV-prevention case manager to discuss how they can either prevent themselves from contracting HIV or how they can prevent the spread of HIV if they are already positive.
Following their twelve-week intervention, they’ll be referred to a services navigator that will help the client maintain their health, including maintaing housing, education, and employment as well as sobriety and safe-sex behaviors.
“Our hopes is that we’ll be able to engage African-American and Latino MSM—regardless of how they identify—and reach a population who hasn’t been reached to help them break away from their addiction and prevent the spread of HIV,” explained Kirby. “And of course, beyond that, this is a five-year grant so during these next five years, we will be looking at additional sources of funding to help the program into the time beyond that.”
Part of the grant was contracted out to The Center, therefore providing the chance for both BHS and Center staff to work with one another in and through the program itself.
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