For nearly 20 years, The AIDS Initiative of The Actors’ Fund has been helping members of the entertainment industry living with HIV/AIDS cope with the extraordinary challenges of healthcare, insurance coverage for medications and housing, as well as the occasional financial and emotional crises brought on by the disease on both a short- and long-term basis.

The collaboration between BC/EFA and The Actors’ Fund’s AIDS Initiative is a model for how an industry can respond with effectiveness and compassion to the AIDS crisis. The AIDS Initiative provides a full spectrum of essential support services, including emergency financial assistance (for basic necessities such as rent, food, health insurance, and non-reimbursable medical expenses), case management referrals to other sources of community and public assistance, benefits advocacy, vocational retraining, counseling, and support groups for people with HIV/AIDS and their partners, families, and caregivers.]

In 2006, The AIDS Initiative assisted 549 individuals – 514 men and 35 women – with client services and emergency financial assistance. Of these, 48 were new clients as of 2006.

From the $3.5 million awarded to The Actors’ Fund by BC/EFA in 2006, $1,131,000 was distributed as direct financial assistance to 270 of those clients living with HIV/AIDS in 16 states and Washington, DC through Actors’ Fund offices in New York, Chicago, and Los
Angeles.

Of this, $477,000 (42%) went to health insurance payments, and $387,000 (34%) for rent. In addition to underwriting direct financial assistance, BC/EFA’s total AIDS Initiative grant of $2,100,000 supports personnel, administrative costs, volunteer needs and other expenses associated with client case management.

Changes in the AIDS environment have had a significant impact on clients. The effectiveness of protease inhibitors, available since 1996, has had major service implications as The AIDS Initiative shifts from helping people with a fatal disease to assisting those with a chronic, manageable one.

In the past, The AIDS Initiative often helped clients prepare for a more dependent level of living. Now, advances in treatment have allowed staff to prepare clients for their independence by helping them to build skills and learn more about the supportive network that can help them remain highly functioning individuals.

However, this change in life expectancy has had a profound effect on the number of clients served by The AIDS Initiative. Between 1994 and 2004, The Actors’ Fund’s AIDS Initiative has experienced a dramatic decrease in the number of AIDS-related
deaths, from almost 50% of its clients in 1994 to just 5% in 2005. While that is encouraging news, the battle is far from over. During this same time, the number of AIDS Initiative clients has more than doubled from 216 in 1994 to 549 in 2006, including many new clients each year.