Healthcare communicators continue to be perplexed about the most effective way to reach minorities with information about AIDS/HIV. Where African Americans are concerned, AIDS/HIV infection rates are disturbingly high. This group accounts for 40 percent of the nation's AIDS cases but comprise only 13 percent of the U.S. population, according to the Harvard AIDS Institute. AIDS is the leading cause of death for African Americans between the ages of 25 to 44, according to the National Minority AIDS Council.
For prevention messages to hit home, many AIDS educators argue that healthcare organizations must make predominantly African American churches an integral part of the outreach formula. To succeed, however, stubborn social and cultural barriers that must be addressed.
Among those churchgoers, AIDS still is regarded as a white homosexual problem or the inevitable outcome of reckless sexual behavior and drug use. Because churches don't want to be accused of condoning the casual sex and drug use that many assume cause the disease, they tend to maintain a distant relationship with AIDS/HIV sufferers.
This represents a wide-open opportunity for healthcare organizations with AIDS services to educate churches about the pivotal role they can play in AIDS prevention, treatment and improving the overall quality of life for sufferers.
Traditional Methods Don't Work
For African Americans, the church has long been the most powerful and credible venue for changing attitudes, from issues of slavery to civil rights and voting. If African-American churches take a role in AIDS/HIV education, the community will listen on a more personal level, says Julia Walker communications director of The Balm in Gilead (BIG), an AIDS advocacy organization in New York that operates the nation's only black church HIV/AIDS technical assistance center.
Traditional outreach literature focusing on prevention and treatment have fallen short because they typically address the needs of gay white men and don't include faith-based language, says Walker. She contends that using spiritual words like "God" and "Jesus" in the context of healing is critical to reaching and moving this community.
BIG has spearheaded several initiatives to mobilize black church support for AIDS outreach and is looking to work with healthcare organizations, especially hospitals, toward this goal. Its most high-profile event is "Black Church Week of Prayer for the Healing of AIDS" in March that engages more than 5,000 churches in prayer and educational activities. It already is working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and at least two major pharmaceutical companies, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Glaxo Wellcome, on outreach.
The $156 million President Clinton recently earmarked for minority-focused HIV/AIDS initiatives creates tremendous opportunities for AIDS partnerships with churches. BIG consults with private and public health agencies that want to increase their effectiveness in working with black churches and is looking to extend this expertise with hospitals, says Walker.
In July, it will hold a seminar on partnering with black churches in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and there are opportunities for private consultations. For more information, contact Julia Walker at 888/225-6243 or e-mail her at [email protected].
Faith-based Outreach
Last month, Antioch Baptist Church in Cleveland formed a unique partnership with the Cleveland Clinic, called the Agape program, that has been touted as an exciting model for faith-based AIDS testing, prevention education, counseling, case management and treatment referral services. Antioch, with a predominantly African-American congregation, provides an AIDS resource center in the church.
This on-site resource center distinguishes Antioch from other black churches involved in AIDS outreach, says Walker. And Bristol-Myers Squibb, an Agape partner, is looking to expand this model with other black churches nationwide
The instance of AIDS among African Americans in Cleveland is particularly acute, accounting for 64 percent of the cases reported in 1998 and 50 percent of cumulative cases since 1981.
Last August, Cleveland area AIDS activists brought this regional pandemic to the attention of various social and community organizations. Antioch's Rev. Marvin A. McMickle, accompanied by the Cleveland Clinic's director of health affairs, Dr. John Clough, was the only minister to attend the meeting. It was there that Antioch and the Clinic decided to work together on an outreach effort.
To compel black churches to make AIDS an outreach priority, healthcare organizations must make the issue locally relevant by providing them with area statistics and strategies for targeting those most at risk - usually heterosexuals.
In addition, churches can also be given a new role in informing members and visitors about the latest in treatments and clinical trial opportunities. This is a key area for Dallas-based Cathedral of Hope in providing ongoing AIDS awareness. Cathedral of Hope is the country's largest gay and lesbian church with at least 2,500 members. Since the late 1970s, it has provided an AIDS counseling center and various prevention services. The Cathedral currently works with Parkland Memorial Hospital on outreach services and is open to working with other hospitals and treatment centers, says Dr. Sharon Bezner, Cathedral of Hope's director of wellness.
(BIG, Julia Walker, 212/730-7381; Bristol-Myers Squibb, Michael Brown, 609/897-2742; Cathedral of Hope, Dr. Sharon Bezner, 214/351-1901)