Task force seeks talk at forums about HIV
Posted on Tuesday, June 10, 2008
A task force studying the effect of HIV and AIDS on members of minority groups in the state discussed Monday how to solicit testimony in public forums from HIV-positive people without revealing their identities.
But the first priority, members said, is to get the word out that the task force will be holding three more public forums around the state.
The first event last week at Philander Smith College in Little Rock drew about 45 people, but most of them were service providers or members of the Arkansas HIV / AIDS Minority Task Force.
“We needed more people there,” said Rick Collins, coexecutive director of Future Builders, Inc, a Wrightsville nonprofit organization, and the task force chairman.
The members decided to invite state legislators, more aggressively courting media attention, and to ask Gov. Mike Beebe to issue a statement encouraging attendance at the three forthcoming forums.
The 19-member task force was appointed by Beebe in January after 2007 legislation sponsored by Rep. Willie Hardy, D-Camden, became law. The panel will submit a report of its findings to the governor, House and Senate leadership, and the state Department of Health before Nov. 1.
The next forum is scheduled for Fayetteville on July 17, and members debated whether videotaping the proceedings for their report required participants to sign a waiver.
A forum is open to the public and news media, said Ruben Arana of Little Rock, a health outreach coordinator for the Arkansas Human Development Corporation, a nonprofit that educates Hispanics on sexually transmitted diseases and lifestyle issues as part of its mission.
Still, HIV-infected people who wish to address the task force to help it make recommendations should be given “a conducive atmosphere that is not threatening,” said Dr. Michelle Smith of North Little Rock and Jefferson Comprehensive Care Systems, Inc.
Allowing testimony to be given using false names or no name at all could satisfy the Freedom of Information Act requirements and preserve patient anonymity, said Dr. Katharine Stewart of the Fay Boozman School of Public Health at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
To further protect the identities of those testifying, digital audio recordings will be made of the forums instead of videotapes.
Hearing directly from those suffering from the disease is crucial to the task force’s mission, Stewart said.
“The public forum can be a time when we hear about their concerns,” she said.
The other two forums will be held on Aug. 21 in Pine Bluff and Sept. 22 in West Memphis.
In 2006, although just 15. 6 percent of the state’s population, blacks accounted for ®, or 51 percent, of the 341 new HIV cases diagnosed around the state, according to a report delivered to the task force by Patricia Minor of the Arkansas Minority Health Commission. Between 1983 and 1998, whites made up two-thirds of all AIDS cases, according to state Department of Health statistics. Since 1999, blacks and whites have been diagnosed in nearly identical numbers, despite whites outnumbering blacks by more than five times statewide.
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