API Wellness Campaign Promotes Expanded Services

The health care landscape for LGBTQ and people of color is transforming and the Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center wants to make sure the word is out.

This week the organization unveiled a bus shelter campaign aimed at ensuring that underserved residents in the Tenderloin get much-needed health care services.

API Wellness, which specializes in health care for LGBTQ communities and people of color, was named a federally qualified health center last year and was recently approved to accept Medi-Cal and Medicare payments. It offers comprehensive primary care services to patients regardless of their ability to pay. The center now has a goal of reaching 3,000 new patients in the next two years.

"We want the community to know there's a resource here they can access," Lance Toma, API Wellness' CEO, said at a news conference Tuesday, October 11 at its Polk Street offices.

The ads, which are part of a larger outreach and enrollment strategy, will be placed inside bus shelters throughout the Tenderloin neighborhood.

The campaign will run through December.

"San Francisco can do better and API Wellness is committed to addressing this," said Toma, a gay man.

Known for health care programs such as the HIV Center of Excellence and Trans:Thrive, API Wellness offers services that include health screening and education, behavioral health, family planning, HIV and sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, transgender health, and PrEP and post-exposure prophylaxis, or PEP.

According to a news release, nearly two-thirds of low-income individuals living in the Tenderloin do not access health care services or have a place they can call their "medical home."

San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim, who represents the district, placed outreach efforts in the context of the neighborhood she serves.

"We who work and live here see beneath the common images of the Tenderloin. It's one of the most compassionate communities I've ever been a part of," said Kim, who is running against gay Supervisor Scott Wiener for the state Senate.

"So many immigrants and LGBTQ young people live here because it's the only neighborhood they could afford. The TL is the first or last place many community members end up. We need to address the health issues of this neighborhood. API Wellness is a bedrock in accomplishing this," said Kim.

LGBT officials also praised API Wellness' recent ramp up of services.

"I can't tell you how excited I am," said Cecilia Chung, a transgender woman who is a San Francisco health commissioner. "Piece by piece, the staff and management put together this vision starting over 20 years ago.

"When I didn't have family support or a job because of my gender identity, the TL was my home. I found hope. This was where I was able to get the health care I needed," said Chung.

Dr. Tri Do, a gay man who is the chief medical officer at API Wellness, discussed the urgent medical needs in the neighborhood.

"The highest rates of heart disease, violence, and infections in San Francisco are in the Tenderloin," he said. "Twenty thousand people in the neighborhood don't have the health care they need."

Juliette-Marie Somerset, a transgender woman who is a patient and on the board of directors at API Wellness, shared what it means to her to have found a place to receive medical care.

"There is enormous respect and support here for my personal journey. I am proud the API community is consistently an affirming community," she said.

For more information, visit http://www.apiwellness.org