Black Health Center of Excellence
The Black Health Center of Excellence (BHCoE) engages with Black individuals living with HIV/AIDS to help retain comprehensive care and services*
Black Americans account for 13% of people living with HIV in San Francisco but represent only 6% of the city's total population
The BHCoE provides provide high quality, multi-disciplinary, culturally competent health care to Black Americans living with HIV/AIDS and at the intersection of poverty, mental health needs, substance use, incarceration, and housing insecurity. The BHCoE strives to reduce harm, improve health status and quality of life for clients, and integrate multiple health professions into a team based, multi-disciplinary approach to care.
Approach
The BHCoE places a strong emphasis on culturally appropriate interventions including community building and social support to combat stigma and isolation related to HIV amongst Black Americans.
Services
As a non-medical case management program, SFCHC's BHCoE initiative aims to support enrolled clients with their medical engagement by:
providing strategic outreach and care linkage
strengths-based case management
resource navigation treatment adherence counseling
clinical outreach and navigation
case consultation and coordination
programmatic outreach and coordination
The BHCoE is part of a larger network of Centers of Excellence developed to support people living with HIV/AIDS and receives its funding through the Ryan White Care Act.
*Clients of UCSF's Ward 86 and UCS's 360 clinic
Meet the BHCoE staff
Bhcoe History
BHCoE’s original program was the Southeast Corridor Center of Excellence.
The original partners of the program were the Black Coalition on AIDS which became the Rafiki Coalition for Health and Wellness, the Men of Color Clinic and the Southeast Health Center. (2007)
After facing some adversities, the program’s grant was re-bid with Ward 86, the SF AIDS Foundation and the Men of Color clinic winning the bid. (2011)
The SF AIDS Foundation Black Brothers of Esteem named the Black Health Center of Excellence but after ten years felt they were no longer suited to provide case management and SFCHC took over last year where former program manager Johnny Rodriguez helped develop and implement the current program at SFCHC.