ARCW's Kenosha Medical Center Expands Services
Kenosha - As a way to help more HIV patients reach undetectable viral levels, the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin (ARCW) Medical Center now offers mental health services to people living with HIV in Kenosha.  The integration of mental health care furthers the ARCW commitment to ensuring everyone living with HIV has access to the care and treatment they need to live a long and health life and comes soon after the clinic tripled its week hours of operation.
  "The ARCW Medical Center has set an ambitious goal of helping all HIV patients reach an undetectable viral load," ARCW Kenosha Clinic Director and nurse practitioner Sharon O'Dwyer said.  "This is the most important quality-of-care goal in HIV treatment because it indicates that people living with HIV are controlling the production of the virus in their body as effectively as possible."
  Achieving an undetectable viral load is evidence HIV medications and medical care are allowing people with HIV to regain their health and live long and health lives.  This previously hard to attain goal is now a reality for many HIV patients at the ARCW Medical Center and is the result of successful individualized care and treatment plans each HIV patient has at the clinic.
  An extremely important component of quality heath care and helping HIV patients reduce their viral load is access to mental health care.  Because many people living with HIV are also experiencing depression, anxiety, alcohol or other drug dependency or post-traumatic stress, access to mental health services is vital to help HIV patients adhere to complicated treatment regimens.
  "Effective mental health care can promote healthy behaviors that increase the lifespan of people living with HIV while working to reduce behaviors that put people at risk for transmitting HIV," ARCW mental health therapist Dr. Nadia Damm said.  "By offering mental health services here in Kenosha, ARCW is making this effective component of HIV care and treatment more accessible to people living with HIV in the Kenosha area."
  This is the ARCW Medical Center's second expansion of mental health services in 2008. A mental health clinic also opened in Green Bay last February.
  In addition to medical and mental health care, people living with HIV in and around Kenosha can access several key services such as access to a food pantry, legal services, housing support, dental care and social work case management. 
  The ARCW Medical Center, with a clinic in Kenosha, is the largest provider of HIV medical care in Wisconsin. The ARCW Medical Center provides HIV medical care to more gay men, women and people of color than any other clinic in the state.  ARCW is Wisconsin's largest and most comprehensive AIDS service organization with nine statewide locations providing medical, dental and mental health care, legal services, food pantries, housing services and social work case management to more than 3,000 people living with HIV.
  To learn more about ARCW services in Kenosha, please call 262-657-6644 or go to www.arcw.org.