Housing Works Announces Merger with AIDS Treatment Data Network
Housing Works announced today that the AIDS Treatment Data Network (ATDN) has merged into Housing Works’ newly created Access to Care department. The merger will allow both organizations to increase their ability to reach people living with HIV and hepatitis C online and push for expanded health care access for both populations.
Despite the merger, ATDN will retain its own identity. ATDN Director Ken Fornataro will oversee the E-Access to Care program, which will continue to carry out the principle functions of ATDN. Those functions include providing comprehensive information on access to medical treatment for people living with HIV and hepatitis C across the United States and linking people directly to care both on-line and through one of two national toll-free numbers. The E-Access to Care program will also provide information about Housing Works’ comprehensive integrated health care system to New Yorkers who are living with or at risk for HIV.
Those toll-free numbers are 1-877-296-9264 and 1-800-734-7104. Both the Housingworks.org and ATDN.org websites can be used to enroll into the E-Access to Care program.
Fornataro will also spearhead Housing Works’ expanded advocacy and community organizing around access to health care, including treatment access. A full-time writer will be added to Fornataro’s team so that the Housing Works AIDS Issues Update and the ATDN website can provide daily news updates on treatment access issues.
Other ATDN employees will continue their case management efforts, providing care coordination and care navigation for immigrants living with HIV, as part of the Housing Works’ Care Coordination Program.
“As the country grapples with health care reform, it is essential that people living with HIV and hepatitis C have a voice. Working with Ken and ATDN will not only allow us to expand our services here in the New York area but also give us greater opportunity to participate in national healthcare changes,” said Housing Works President and CEO Charles King.
“We are honored and strengthened by this new collaboration with Housing Works,” said Paul E. Cothran, executive director and vice president of the VH1 Save The Music Foundation and the founding and current president of ATDN. “There is a heartbreaking surge in cases among teenagers, and both young and older adults. We have to provide care and support to a greater number of people to finally get this epidemic under control.”
About Housing Works and ATDN
Housing Works is the nation’s largest community-based AIDS organization and the nation’s largest minority-controlled AIDS organization. Since 1990, Housing Works has provided a comprehensive array of lifesaving services, such as housing, medical and dental care, meals, case management, counseling and job training, to more than 20,000 homeless or low-income New Yorkers living with HIV/AIDS. For more information, visit www.HousingWorks.org.
ATDN began in 1988 as an information and counseling service for gay men and people of color living with HIV/AIDS and has grown into a treatment, research and care advocacy and information clearinghouse. ATDN was the first organization to create a national program to address treatment and care access issues in collaboration with academia, foundations, industry and government. ATDN remains committed to advocating for treatment, care and prevention of AIDS/HIV and hepatitis C and B.
Posted on January 7, 2010 at 2:05 am
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