CARE
At APLA Health, we think it’s good to talk honestly and openly about sex. It’s just one key to establishing a good relationship with your medical provider and with your partner(s). We also believe in talking about the different tools that help protect you against HIV. PrEP and PEP are two of those tools.
APLA Health’s PrEP and PEP navigator team is dedicated, knowledgeable and culturally competent; it’s their mission to ensure that no one sees a barrier when trying to receive PrEP or PEP.
Our team not only assists people with their PrEP and PEP prescriptions, but they also help people adhere to their prescriptions AND help them navigate insurance and benefits to reduce or eliminate their copays.
SUPPORT
If people have stable housing, they are more likely to be healthy overall.
APLA Health has known for a long time that housing is a foundation for care. Studies of healthcare access and utilization among PLWHA have generally found that poorer housing status is correlated with not receiving optimal HIV care. That is why our housing support programs are so important to individuals and our community.
We want to make sure that no one has to choose between food and medical care. Different housing programs help people in different situations. We’re able to work within the alphabet soup of government programs to find programs designed to get people help. If we can alleviate one burden from someone’s life to ensure they receive care, we will make it happen.
EDUCATION
APLA Health is hard at work breaking down stigma, reforming state laws and removing barriers to care. You can be too!
In 2017, APLA Health cosponsored California SB 239, landmark legislation to reform outdated state laws that unfairly punished people living with HIV/AIDS. With the passage of SB 239, California became the first state in the country — and the model for other states — to treat HIV under the criminal laws in the same way we treat transmission of other serious communicable diseases.
Last year, we co-sponsored SB 159, another revolutionary bill that allows people to go directly to a pharmacist to get their first 30-days of PrEP medication, a once-daily pill that can stop the spread of HIV. With its passage, SB 159 increases the places where people can access these medications, increases the number of healthcare professionals who can provide them and removes onerous and unnecessary insurance barriers.