Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1991. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
San Francisco Chronicle (SF); Tuesday, October 1, 1991
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Staff Writer
The Center for Positive Care, formed by a coalition of San Francisco AIDS service groups, is billed as "one-stop shopping" for AIDS services among the 15 agencies that are collaborating with it.
Each of the agencies will have an employee at the center, which will help guide clients through what it calls "the complex and often confusing" health care system.
"If someone needs to get on Medi-Cal, we'll have AIDS Benefits Counselors down the hall to the door on the right. If someone needs help with substance abuse, they can see the counselor from the Haight-Ashbury substance abuse program, down the hall to the left," said Dr. James Dilley, project director for the University of California at San Francisco AIDS Health Project, a leading sponsor of the center.
The center, at 3180 18th Street at the corner of Folsom, is housed in the former Portman luggage factory. The historic building will eventually provide the center with 10,000 square feet of offices.
When the center opens today, staff members will work in temporary office space. By the end of the year, the facility will feature an AIDS resource library, a clinic to provide anonymous acquired immune deficiency syndrome testing, and counseling rooms.
"There are a tremendous number of people who are HIV-positive in this city. It is absolutely imperative that they get treatment as early as possible to postpone the symptoms of AIDS," said Bill Hayes of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, one of the collaborating agencies.
Although open to all San Franciscans, the center is designed to improve availability of AIDS services to groups that have been missing out: blacks, Hispanics, women, drug users, young people and the homeless.
It will be open Mondays through Saturdays, operating 60 hours per week. The center's usual hours of operation will be from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m., except on Tuesdays, when it will open at noon, and Saturdays, when it will close at 5 p.m.
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