As the new year gets going (is it already mid-January??), we’re turning up the heat on preparations for the 2016 Hudson Valley AIDS Walk–and RUN! We’re excited to announce the return of several loyal event sponsors who have made the commitment to helping us end AIDS in the Hudson Valley.
Thanks to Stop and Shop on Route 9 in Poughkeepsie for signing on as our Healthy Snack Sponsor. Employees will be on site that morning with plenty of fresh fruit, water and granola bars for hungry walkers and runners! Stop and Shop also provides financial support.
Welcome back to the Crafted Kup (Raymond Ave., Poughkeepsie) as our official Coffee Sponsor! Enjoy free refills of gourmet java from a great local small business.
Superior Sounds returns as our own version of the AV club, providing sound and DJ services. They’re huge supporters of HVCS and we’re huge fans in return.
Last but certainly not least, we welcome longtime supporter Hudson Valley Federal Credit Union as a Walk/Run sponsor. They’ve sponsored other events in the past, so they’re still a returning sponsor but NEW to the AIDS Walk/Run!
Now’s a great time to sign up as a walker, a team or as a runner: get a jumpstart on training on our Walk/Run page!
On March 3, 1986, the small volunteer organization that was the Mid-Hudson Valley AIDS Task Force filed for incorporation and recognition as a tax-exempt not-for-profit organization. That group eventually registered a “DBA” or “doing business as” and was known as AIDS-Related Community Services, or ARCS, until 2012. At the very end of that year, faced with proposed changes to Medicaid (which impacted our Medicaid-reimbursed COBRA case management program) and an expanding portfolio of services beyond HIV/AIDS, the agency changed its name to Hudson Valley Community Services or HVCS. Even though we have a relatively new name, our core mission and services remain the same. We believe it’s an amazing feat to have lasted this long, and we’ll be rolling out special initiatives and events throughout 2016. Watch for more details and more information as the year proceeds!
HVCS’ Board of Directors is pleased to announce a new slate of officers, including a new Board President. Andrew S. Evans, Jr. took the helm after former chair Paul Callagy decided to step down. “HVCS’ Board is in a terrific place,” Paul said during his resignation speech. “We have a new, energized membership, and it’s time for some new leadership.” Paul served on the Board for eighteen years and was President for over fifteen years.
Andrew Evans works for the Dutchess County Department of Health. He joined the Board in 2012, and he lives in Beacon. The other newly-elected officers include Vice President Michael J. Hall, a Milton resident and a professor at Dutchess Community College. Aretha Thompson was elected as Secretary; she is a manager at Citizens Bank and lives in Beacon. Another Beacon resident, Andrew Bell, was elected as Treasurer. He works as a financial consultant for Global Employment Solutions/IBM.
Congratulations to the new Board officers, and we send our sincerest appreciation and gratitude to Paul Callagy for so many years of dedicated service.
Infectious syphilis is increasing in New York State, with a 13% increase in New York City and a 44% increase in upstate New York between 2013 and 2014. In many areas, the number of cases has more than doubled in this period. The highest burden of cases is seen in New York City and surrounding counties (which would include the Hudson Valley). Cases are mainly among males, especially gay men and men who have sex with men.
We encourage everyone to be aware of the risk factors, signs, and symptoms of syphilis. Having unprotected sex, multiple sex partners, or a new sex partner can all increase the risk of syphilis infection, as well as other STI’s and HIV.To learn more about syphilis, visit our RPI team or http://bit.ly/NYSDOHSyph. Call (845) 471-0707 x12 to schedule a test, or stop in at one of our testing events. You can also check out the basics on our website.
Do you know an Orange or Sullivan County resident living with chronic health conditions that doesn’t have insurance?
HVCS now offers FREE Health Services Coordination for uninsured individuals with chronic health conditions or mental health illnesses. The HSC Program can:
• Assess health needs and refer them to resources
• Refer them to food and housing sources
• Inform them about insurance options
• Enroll them in the NYS health insurance marketplace, including Medicaid
• Serve as contact to NYS health insurance marketplace
Our Coordinator is a Certified Application Counselor.
Get ready for the Hudson Valley AIDS Walk, HVCS’ biggest fundraiser of the year! Join us on the Walkway Over the Hudson on Saturday, May 9, 2015 from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm with lots of free snacks, coffee, vendors, music and fun for all ages. This is the only fundraising walk that benefits local people living with HIV/AIDS and we need your help to end AIDS in our lifetime. Together, we can make it happen!
Special thanks to care manager Frankee Ryan, long-time volunteer Patrick Decker and Solaris 3 Productions for making this happen!
If you had a serious illness, how much would you want to know about it?
Dr. Rachel A. Freedman, an oncologist who specializes in breast cancer at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, said she noticed a few years ago that many patients who were referred to her had little understanding of their disease or its treatment.
There was hardly any published information on what patients knew about their own cancers, so Dr. Freedman and some colleagues decided to conduct a study. They asked 500 women four questions: Did they know the stage of their tumor, the grade (an indicator of how aggressive a cancer is), and whether it was fed by estrogen or a growth factor called HER-2?
“Nobody’s ever looked at this before, and it’s a simple set of questions,” she said.
The researchers compared the women’s answers with their medical records. The results, published in January in the journal Cancer, showed that a little more than half of the women knew their cancer’s stage and its estrogen and HER-2 status. Only 20 percent knew the grade. Blacks and Hispanics tended to know less than whites.
The study did not determine why the patients knew so little. “It’s hard to know if doctors aren’t discussing it, or if patients aren’t hearing it,” Dr. Freedman said.
Having the information can matter, because many breast cancers are curable if women stick with their treatment, she said. If patients do not know how important treatment is, they may be more likely to quit, particularly if side effects are harsh.
But there is a world of difference between hearing about treatments that can save your life and hearing that they have failed. When cancer is advanced and people fear that death is looming, they are more likely to prefer being spared the details, Dr. Freedman said.
Still, she added, even among the sickest, “I think most patients do want to know.”
Recognizing that aggressive therapy no longer holds promise allows some patients to switch to treatments aimed at keeping them comfortable.
But people who have been dealt a bad hand have different ways of playing it.
Stuart Scott, the ESPN anchor who died of cancer in January, said a year ago that he did not know his prognosis.
“I never ask what stage I’m in,” he said in an interview with TheNew York Times. “I haven’t wanted to know. It won’t change anything to me. All I know is that it would cause more worry and a higher degree of freakout. Stage 1, 2 or 8, it doesn’t matter. I’m trying to fight it the best I can.”
Medical schools have tried harder to train doctors to deliver bad news without crushing the patient. But a recent study suggests that even the kindest manner may not soften the blow as much as expected.
At the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, researchers showed 100 patients with advanced cancer videos of two doctors speaking separately to a sad-looking woman with late-stage cancer who asked if there was some new chemotherapy that would help her.
The doctors and patient were actors, and the videos were crafted to insure that the doctors’ tone, facial expressions, manner and body language were warm and identical. The only difference was the doctors’ message — one was more optimistic than the other.
In one video, the doctor told the patient that no more chemo was possible “right now,” but that if she started feeling a little better, “we can find something for you.”
In the other video, the doctor said no more chemo was possible, and “there is no serious chance of curing your cancer.”
The patients were asked to rate how compassionate and trustworthy the doctors were. The one who offered the more optimistic message scored higher. The findings were published in February in JAMA Oncology.
“What we wanted to test here was, would just the message itself cause you to see me as more or less compassionate?” said Dr. Eduardo Bruera, the senior author of the study and chairman of palliative care and rehabilitation medicine at MD Anderson. “We had a feeling that the ‘shooting the messenger’ idea was present.”
He said medical students are taught that if they are empathetic and use the right body language, patients will see them as compassionate.
“We thought the appropriate methodology might protect us like a shield,” Dr. Bruera said. “Unfortunately, the message itself has some effect.”
It’s not surprising that people don’t like bad news, though the reaction does not mean that patients don’t want the truth. Eighty percent do want to know, he said.
Does it matter if this discussion puts some distance between doctor and patient? Dr. Bruera said he suspected that doctors felt the chill and were distressed about having to provide bad news, and that this might be contributing to high rates of burnout in his specialty.
More studies are being planned, he said, in hopes of finding ways to tell the truth that will be less painful to both doctors and patients.
A version of this article appears in print on March 17, 2015, on page D4 of the New York edition with the headline: What Patients Prefer to Know.
Tags: Awareness, disease, News, patient Posted in News | Comments Off on NYT’s “What Patients Prefer to Know” Looks at Gap Between Patients & Knowledge About Their Disease
Three HVCS staffers–LaShonda Cyrus, Liz Hurley and Tiffany Sturdivant-Morrison–did a poster presentation on one of our quality assurance projects at the New York Academy of Medicine today. The Bureau of HIV/AIDS Prevention and Control New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene presented the conference, entitled “The Power of Quality Improvement: Providers and Consumers Improving Care Together.” Their poster won the “Best Use of Data” Award as determined by votes from the conference participants. Categories were overall best poster presentation, poster showing the best use of data, and most thought provoking poster.
Great job, LaShonda, Liz and Tiffany!
LaShonda Cyrus, Tiffany Sturdivant-Morrison, and Liz Hurley present our poster at the Quality Assurance conference.
LaShonda Cyrus, Senior Program Supervisor, talks with conference attendees.
Tiffany Sturdivant-Morrison, CQI Manager, discusses her findings with conference attendees.
Tiffany draws a small crowd.
Tiffany accepts the award for Best Use of Data.
Our award for Best Use of Data.
Tags: Awareness, staff Posted in News | Comments Off on HVCS Staff Present–and Win!–at the “Power of Quality Improvement” Conference in NYC