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“People living with HIV age into a sort of no-man’s land that can be a lonely and potentially dangerous place,” said John Feather, PhD, CEO of Grantmakers In Aging (GIA). “Aging services and HIV services both deliver excellent care but have no history of working together, and people aging with HIV can get lost. The need for greater coordination, expertise sharing, and inclusion has been strongly affirmed by leaders in both sectors, and, importantly, by people who are themselves aging with HIV/AIDS.”
A Blueprint for Integrating Aging and HIV Services
The framework covers three areas: social complexities and challenges, including low awareness of the issue and the stigma and social isolation many older people with HIV face; the need for a whole-person approach to coordinate medical, mental, and behavioral health care with social and psychosocial support; and updating state and federal policies.
The Framework also examines outdated assumptions about HIV, social justice issues such as racial disparities in prevalence and access to care, and parallels between the AIDS epidemic and COVID-19.
Respecting the Denver Principles of ensuring meaningful involvement by people with HIV in decisions that affect them, the report also includes first-person reflections and video interviews with older people living with HIV, and all featured artwork was created by older people living with HIV.
GIA’s multi-year Moving Ahead Together initiative and this report are supported by a grant from Gilead Sciences. For more information, please click here.
Grantmakers In Aging is a national membership organization of philanthropies. Believing a society which is better for older adults is better for people of all ages, GIA acts as a relevant and responsive network, resource, and champion, amplifying the voices of older people and issues of aging. Our vision is of a just and inclusive world where older people are fully valued, recognized, and engaged in ways that matter. Learn more at www.GIAging.org.
