Miami Herald - Monday, May 10, 1999
Andrea Robinson and Stephen Smith - Herald Staff Writers

They are part of the MOVERS street outreach team, one of several that scour some of the hardest-hit neighborhoods and prisons in South Florida to counsel, test and comfort those at the greatest risk of contracting the AIDS virus.

The rapid increase of HIV among blacks has fueled the need for case managers, counselors and outreach workers to locate potential patients and help them with decisions about treatment and care.

Snell and others identify the infected and guide them to medical care and social services. Often, the person delivering that message knows firsthand the consequences of ignoring it.

Community-based agencies like MOVERS have stepped in to supplement efforts by county health departments. Their jobs take them to areas most people would avoid -- prisons, drug holes, street corners, parking lots filled with prostitutes and their customers. Sometimes, it's an easy sell. Often, it's tough.

On this night, Joseph walks back and forth across a store parking lot on Northwest 17th Avenue. "Condoms, we've got condoms over here," she yells to a carload of men.

Used to turn tricks

For Joseph, this place is familiar: She used to turn tricks here to support a crack habit. She knows she's lucky she didn't catch the virus. But she didn't escape the pain it wreaks: Her mother died of AIDS last year.

Several women preparing for their evening's work accept the black-and-pink packets from Joseph, as do some of the younger men. It's a tougher sell to some of the older men.

Snell offers on-the-spot, anonymous HIV tests. Team members return in two weeks with results.

In Fort Lauderdale, a similar scene plays out along Sistrunk Boulevard. Barbara Burley, 32 and living with the virus, is an outreach worker with the AIDS agency Broward House. Her message about having unprotected sex is unabashedly straightforward.

"Now is not the time to sugarcoat it," Burley explains. "I tell my little brother, `You have all these people in your family infected. Don't you know that you can get infected? What makes you think you're so invincible?'"

Once an outreach team or social worker has identified a client, that person is connected with a case manager, who makes sure that clients take their medicine and keep their doctors' appointments.

"Some don't want to take their medicine," says Charles Ayebah, a case manager with an outreach group called Christ Crusaders in Opa-locka.

Tracking patients

Patients usually see case managers at least once every three months to review their plan of care and talk with them regularly by phone -- if patients can be tracked down. That's part of Debbie Latson's job as a social worker at the University of Miami's School of Medicine.

"I'll go out in the community and try to locate that person," she says. "Some don't come back to get their result."

One place where workers find a captive audience: South Florida's prisons. "When they're in a cell, my supervisor said, `Don't worry, girl, they're not going anywhere. They'll be there when you get there,' " Burley says.

Each Wednesday, a prison ministry team from MOVERS heads to the Turner Guilford Knight jail in West Dade to deliver a frank message about safe sex. About three dozen men gather for the chat session, which the Rev. Ruby Davenport opens with a prayer. Then, she lectures on how to properly use condoms and spermicides. There's some laughter in the room.

The tone turns sober when a man infected with the virus speaks. He's with MOVERS. He tells how his promiscuous ways and thirst for crack led to his infection.

The inmates pepper him with questions:

How long did it take to get the positive result? (Days.) What was his reaction? (He kind of knew already.) Did he know where he got it from? (Not for sure, but he has an idea.)

They ask the outreach workers more about testing, and then vow to get tested upon release -- if not sooner.

e-mail: arobinson@herald.com or ssmith@herald.com
990510
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