Description
Community Health Action is the only Staten Island community-based organization dedicated to providing HIV/AIDS education, prevention and services to borough residents and providers. For people living with HIV and AIDS, we offer comprehensive case management, including specialized services for undocumented immigrants, the mentally ill, children and pregnant women, and prison inmates. Our Community Re-entry Program connects with positive men released to New York City from upstate prisons, escorts them to appointments and offers counseling to encourage healthy choices and reduce recidivism.
We provide treatment adherence education, a specialized food pantry, holiday food basket deliveries and social and recreational activities such as an annual holiday party and a bi-monthly dinner with an educational presentation and children's activities.
We provide free, confidential rapid HIV counseling and testing at three storefronts, on a Mobile Health Unit, at the College of Staten Island and at Arthur Kill Correctional Facility, and at community venues on request. Clients confirmed positive are offered case management intakes and connected to medical appointments and health insurance.
Since opening our doors in 1989, we have expanded to serve other communities historically impacted by HIV/AIDS. We have developed health educational and social programs for the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) communities. In 2008 we opened a dedicated LGBT Center, the only one in the borough. We operate a community food pantry and offer benefits counseling and vocational readiness services. Through partnerships with the New York City Department of Health & Mental Hygiene, we offer smoking cessation counseling, Nicotine Replacement Therapy, Hepatitis C screening and Hepatitis A and B vaccinations. Injection drug users are offered clean syringes through a Syringe Exchange Program (SEP) and the NYS Expanded Syringe Access Program (ESAP), education on safe injection techniques, overdose prevention and prescriptions for Narcan, and referral to a new treatment for opiate addiction, Suboxone. Mental health counseling and support groups are provided for people with substance use histories and for LGBT and questioning youth and adults. An OASAS-funded, medically-supervised outpatient treatment program helps active substance users, and there are specific addiction treatment services for families with children and for recent prison releasees and parolees.
For youth ages 13 to 24, we offer testing and treatment for sexually transmitted infections and pregnancy testing and referral for follow-up services. At our three storefronts and on the mobile unit we provide free male and female condoms, lubricant, dental dams, finger cots and sexual risk reduction education. Youth peer educators conduct street outreach and staff resource tables at health fairs and community events. Staff offer youth-focused workshops at schools and community groups.