Born out of the AIDS crisis in the 80s, Allies for Health + Wellbeing is the oldest and largest AIDS service organization in Southwestern Pennsylvania. The health care provider, which is situated at 5913 Penn Avenue in East Liberty just down the road from the Kelly Strayhorn Theater, provides a wide range of integrated medical care and supportive human services, including gender-affirming care, HIV speciality care and primary care, a food pantry, mental health and behavioral services, and much more. With a focus on providing care free of stigma and discrimination as well as financial assistance to those who need it, the organization envisions a healthier community where all individuals can get the support they need to thrive.
We spoke to Allies Marketing and Communications Manager Mary Beth Wyko to learn more about this great community partner and resource. She shares Allies’ harrowing beginnings during the early days of the AIDS epidemic and evolution as an organization since then, what makes their care different, and how they are giving back to and supporting individuals in East Liberty and beyond.
Allies got its start in the 80s providing support to people dying from AIDS-related illnesses. Can you talk to me about how the organization has evolved since then to encompass a wide range of services?
Allies grew out of the Pitt Men’s Study at the University of Pittsburgh, which is one of the longest continuously running studies on HIV/AIDS. The people working on the study realized that there was a gap in services for people who had AIDS, so a group of volunteers founded the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force (PATF) in 1985 to address this gap. We incorporated as a 501(c )3 nonprofit organization in 1986, and our first executive director was one of our founding volunteers, Kerry Stoner.
In the early days, PATF primarily helped people with end-of-life concerns. Our legal aid program helped people make their wills and healthcare documents, and they counseled folks on other legal issues they may have had. This was before the Americans with Disabilities Act, which was passed in 1990, and due to the stigma around HIV/AIDS, people could lose their jobs or their leases because of an HIV diagnosis. We also offered the Buddy Program. There were many people with AIDS who were dying without the support and care of family and friends, either due to stigma around AIDS, homophobia, or simply because so many people were dying of AIDS that people were losing partners and friends. The Buddy Program matched volunteers to people with AIDS to provide a support system for people who may not have had that support otherwise. We also had a hotline where people could call and get information about HIV and AIDS, how it was spread, how they could protect themselves, etc., which was incredibly important because in the early days of the epidemic, there was a lot of misinformation, and we were still learning about the virus and what it did to the body.
In 1990, Congress passed the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act, which offered funding for community-based AIDS resource groups like PATF. Because of the Ryan White CARE Act, PATF expanded rapidly, and we were able to start providing case management services, and shortly after, added a food pantry for our clients. We also offered anonymous testing for HIV when that became available. The Ryan White CARE Act is still an important part of how our organization is funded.
In the mid-1990s, highly active anti-retroviral therapies became available, and we began to see people living with HIV instead of people dying of AIDS. This meant that our services needed to adjust since our clients were no longer mostly dealing with end-of-life issues. In 2017, we opened our clinic and rebranded as Allies for Health + Wellbeing to reflect our expanded mission. One of the things we were hearing from patients and clients was that they didn’t want to go to the AIDS clinic—they just wanted to see their doctor. And that’s exactly what our patients and clients can do at Allies today. We provide inclusive, holistic care by recognizing our clients’ full-lived experience. While HIV testing and treatment remains our specialty, our patients and clients can receive primary care, gynecological care, gender-affirming care, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV prevention, mental health care, case management, and our food pantry services all in one location. Our expanded mission allows us to serve all those in need of inclusive care, not just people living with HIV.
What gap in the market is Allies working to fill?
We are fortunate in Pittsburgh to have access to incredible, cutting-edge healthcare. But large healthcare organizations cannot always offer a personal touch, and patients don’t always feel seen or heard by their healthcare providers. At Allies, we pride ourselves on treating the whole person and not just a single diagnosis. We understand that there are many factors that affect a person’s health and that many people face barriers to care–including racial discrimination, access to transportation, being able to get time off work, distrust of healthcare providers, etc.–and we take all of that into account when we sit down with a patient. We hear from a lot of our patients that they truly feel seen by all of our staff, not just the healthcare providers, but our front desk staff, our medical assistants, our health advocates–everyone they encounter.
Allies is experienced in culturally-competent care, treating LGBTQIA+ patients, transgender patients, HIV-positive patients, patients of color, and more. Why is this so important, and what is different about this kind of care?
Despite all the progress we’ve made, a lot of our healthcare is based on what works for an “average” white man, even though healthcare is not a one-size-fits-all product. It’s pretty easy to find stories of women whose pain is dismissed by healthcare professionals, and there is a lot of dark history around medical science and people of color–the Tuskegee syphilis study and the exploitation of Henrietta Lacks’ cancer cells, for example. And I’ve had people tell me stories about attempting to receive care as a trans person or as an LGBTQIA+ person–trans folks find themselves having to explain to their doctors how they should be treated or medical professionals making assumptions about people based on their gender identity or sexuality.
There are unfortunately a lot of people who have had experiences with the healthcare system that make them reluctant to go back, even if they may be in desperate need of care. This is what we are trying to address by providing culturally competent care at Allies.
People who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community can receive care at Allies from providers who are highly experienced at treating people like them. They don’t have to explain themselves, and they will be treated as a whole person. We do community outreach in order to build trust with people who may not have had great experiences in a medical setting. We strive to be a safe space where anyone can come and receive high-quality, compassionate care, without judgment or stigma. This is incredibly important, because everyone deserves high-quality medical care regardless of who they are, and that’s something that many people have not experienced.
How do you define “integrated” medical care?
Integrated medical care means that our staff look at each patient or client as a whole person and not just a single diagnosis. It means understanding the underlying factors that can affect a person’s health, like poverty and racism, and treating our patients and clients without judgment. While our staff is highly trained, we recognize that our patient is the expert in their own experience, and we trust our patients when they describe their experience. As I mentioned previously, many of our patients and clients say that when they talk to medical professionals at Allies, they feel like they are truly being heard and seen.
Why did Allies choose East Liberty and what do you hope to offer the community?
Our clinic opened in 2017, but we’ve been in East Liberty since 2007. We chose East Liberty as our location because it was close and convenient for many of our clients and patients, and since we’re right on Penn Avenue, we’re also accessible by bus. We were located in Wilkinsburg before we moved to East Liberty. We are a growing organization, and we’re outgrowing our current location–as we look for a new, larger space, we’re hoping to stay in East Liberty.
We hope that the East Liberty community sees us as a valuable resource for their healthcare needs and as a good neighbor. And we appreciate the great businesses and organizations that are nearby. We’ve partnered with many of the businesses and organizations in East Liberty, from Sojourner House to Duolingo, and we’re always looking for ways to connect more with our neighbors and community.
What financial assistance do you offer to those who need it?
Financial assistance is part of our case management program for people who are living with HIV and has been since our days as the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force. If one of our clients needs help paying a utility bill or getting basic home necessities, for example, that’s where our financial assistance comes in. In our clinic, we accept most insurances, but if a patient is uninsured, we do offer payment plans for them, and we can direct them to services like the PA Medical Assistance Program. We do not turn anyone away from services due to an inability to pay.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
One thing that often gets overlooked these days is that the HIV/AIDS epidemic is not over. Though it can now be managed as a chronic health condition, HIV is still a serious disease, and it’s still being diagnosed. In fact, due to the opioid epidemic, places with high rates of opioid use are also seeing higher rates of HIV and hepatitis C. It’s important that people know whether or not they are at risk of HIV, and that’s one of our priorities as an organization–education and outreach about sexual health.
We’re also able to prevent HIV with pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP. With a once-daily pill or a monthly injection, people can be 99% protected from contracting HIV through sex. Additionally, if a person has HIV and takes their medication regularly, they can have an undetectable viral load, meaning that they cannot spread the HIV virus through sex. These are incredible advances in medicine that we couldn’t imagine when our organization began in 1985.
For our neighbors in East Liberty, we are always looking for community partners of all kinds. We can bring our mobile testing van to your location to offer free HIV, hepatitis C, and STI testing.
I do presentations on the Pittsburgh AIDS Task Force, Allies, and the history of the HIV/AIDS epidemic on a fairly regular basis, and I’m always happy to share information about who we are and what we do. We’re always looking for potential sponsors for the events we put on for World AIDS Day, National HIV Testing Day, and our annual fundraising gala, the Allies Ball.
We also offer volunteer opportunities for anyone who would like to get involved with Allies–our most regular volunteer opportunity is working in our food pantry. Each month, we get a delivery from the food bank and Giant Eagle, and we rely on volunteers to help us unload and unpack the delivery. Folks can volunteer individually, or we can set up a group activity for a business or organization that wants to volunteer together. Anyone interested in our volunteer opportunities can contact me, Mary Beth Wyko, at mbwyko@alliespgh.org.
Thanks so much for telling us more about your organization, Mary Beth!
