San Francisco Chroncile - Sunday, July 15, 2001
Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer

"You have to be empathetic, a good listener and have the ability to deal with a very depressed person," says Siegel, a semi-retired psychology instructor and college admissions officer.

In 3 1/2 years, Siegel has never taken a break from his commitment to the foundation, but he admits that "compassion fatigue" almost got to him about seven months ago, when one of his clients was physically debilitated and another was going through a particularly challenging period. Siegel, who talks to his clients by phone, says part of his job is to unburden them of emotional pain -- pain that he tries to take upon himself.

"It wasn't that I wanted to quit -- it was that I felt alone," says Siegel, "like I was dealing with this on my own."

Fortunately for Siegel, an associate director at the foundation learned of his situation and suggested they talk on a regular basis. Their conversations have continued since then, giving Siegel an outlet for his own previously unvoiced feelings. "It's like a little mini-therapy session," he says.

The San Francisco AIDS Foundation has 600 volunteers like Siegel -- men, women and teens who outnumber the paid staff by 6 to 1. Some volunteers staff the "AIDS Hotline," the seven-day-a-week phone service that gives callers information, emotional support and referrals.

Volunteers complete a 32-hour training program before taking calls on the Hotline, which is separate from the "Buddy Line" that Siegel works on. The foundation also operates a "Client Line," in which volunteers check periodically on people with HIV and AIDS. Other volunteers do everything from stuffing envelopes to handing out information at street fairs. Volunteers are asked to work at the foundation one shift a week for at least six months.

"We depend very heavily on our volunteers," says Robin Avant, director of community information and education for the foundation, which was established a year after the advent of the AIDS crisis in 1981.

Avant has volunteered at the foundation, as has her 17-year-old daughter. Avant says it's "normal" for volunteers to want a break from their work because of stress or compassion fatigue. Asked how she reinvigorates herself, Avant says, "You see what's going on globally, in Africa (where 25 million people have HIV or AIDS) and in other parts of the world, and you get a new desire to continue to fight so there's a cure."

Siegel first volunteered in Los Angeles, from 1984 to 1987, as a health educator at a gay and lesbian community center. Siegel would talk face-to-face with people who were taking blood tests or getting back their results. "I had a number of friends who died of AIDS in the '80s," he says. "At the time, people died pretty terrible deaths. Seeing that, I just felt that I had to get involved. When (in 1997) I moved to San Francisco, volunteering was a logical way to get reconnected."

Besides working with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Siegel volunteered for a year with the UCSF AIDS Health Project. At the foundation, Siegel has staffed the Buddy Line for two years; before that, he worked shifts on the Hotline and did other jobs. Through his work at the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, Siegel says he has relearned an important lesson: Don't give up the first time you feel challenged or overwhelmed. The rewards of volunteering, he says, are more apparent over the long-term.

"I'm more capable of accepting the fact that (clients) aren't always going to want to talk, or they have other things to do, or they don't feel greatly in need of talking, so there will be times -- maybe several weeks in a row -- where you won't reach a given client," he says. "Then there are those times when you do reach that client, where it can be extremely important.

"What I'm doing now is really important, even though I'm only reaching a small number of clients."

For more information about the San Francisco AIDS Foundation or to volunteer there, go to www.sfaf.org.
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