PAGE 19
HIV NUTRITION UPDATE
VOLUME 6, ISSUE 3

(Continued from page 11)

Whitman-Walker Clinic, Inc.
By Denise Li, BS

Patient Education Materials: The Whitman-Walker Clinic provides handouts, video/audio presentations, food-related quizzes, a monthly flyer in the Food Bank grocery bags, and supplement/pharmaceutical flyers. 

What is your most difficult issue? Ms. Vedapurisan finds her most difficult issue to be building a clientele and trying to help physicians understand the importance of nutrition in the overall health care plan. Also, it is a challenge to create awareness among patients on the critical role that their diet plays in managing HIV. She notes, "We are beginning to generate more physician and self-referrals now.”

Who is your best ally? Vidya finds that her best allies are the volunteers. Also, there is a public health officer, the DTR, and the peer educators who provide individual and group nutrition education.
What differences exist between current clientele and that of the HIV+ person in the early 1980s?  According to volunteer Deane Edelman, BS, DTR, the clinic began as a gay and lesbian health center in 1974. The clientele consisted of gay, white males when AIDS hit in the 1980s. For the past decade, a majority of African American clients, including women, have been seen at the clinic.
Is someone involved in program operation actively involved with the local HIV/AIDS Health Services Planning Council?  “We have one Public Policy Officer who is spread quite thin. She is responsible for monitoring federal developments as well as local, and for representing us not only on the Planning Council, but at various AIDS organizations’ meetings, many of which are held here because it’s Washington, DC. Her concerns are much broader, though, than the provision of nutrition services. Ms. Edelman, our volunteer DTR, also attends Ryan White Planning Council meetings as a representative, not of the Clinic, but of the local AIDS dietitians alliance.”

How do you participate in HIV/AIDS networking groups?   Both Vidya and Deane are members of the DC Nutrition Alliance and the HIV/AIDS Dietetic Practice Group of the American Dietetic Association.

What have you found to be most useful in helping to keep up with the current research on nutrition and HIV?   Ms. Vedapurisan uses HIV/AIDS related publications, medical journals, and websites such as Medscape to keep up with current research. 
 

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11/25/2001