By Albert H. Fulcher
More than 100 people showed up to celebrate 20 years of CASA’s service in South Bay San Diego. San Ysidro Health Center’s (SYHC) Coordinated, Assistance, Services and Advocacy (CASA) service center was founded specifically to improve the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS and their families. It hasn’t been an easy road for SYHC, with many financial problems impacting CASA’s development over the last 20 years, especially with the stigma that HIV and AIDS had in the community during the height of the AIDS crisis. Even though event attendees remembered the obstacles SYHC faced in opening a special clinic in South Bay, Nov. 13 was a day of celebration for CASA’s two decades worth of service.
Karla Torres, SYHC associate director of HIV Services, said that the celebration could not be held without celebrating Ryan White, the 13-year-old boy from Indiana who was diagnosed with HIV in 1984 following a blood transfusion.
“It was a time when people feared HIV,” Torres said. “A time when they knew very little about HIV/AIDS. White and his family had to fight the stigma surrounding the epidemic. For years, him and his family fought for people infected with HIV/AIDS. He became one of the greatest living symbols [championing] unbiased, accurate information on HIV. Five years later, he died of AIDS at the age of 18. Just a few months after that, the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program was enacted in 1990. It is still, right now, the most comprehensive program supporting the people with HIV. Thanks to them, we can now celebrate 20 years of services throughout the community.”
Having individuals onboard back then who joined forces with Ryan White, who fought the epidemic and the stigma, was one of the biggest aspects SYHC wanted to focus on.
“To make sure that everyone had dignity, and everyone had care,” Torres said. “Fighting discrimination, they then became activists, even at the start of the epidemic. Here in San Diego, we had our own advocates, our very strong allies leading the fight to combat stigma. In my 15 years of working in San Ysidro, it has been an honor to work along side some of our patients to make sure that we end the epidemic.”
SYHC President/CEO Kevin Mattson said the day was an incredible milestone (during SYHC’s own 50th anniversary year, no less) as he watched this program evolve over 20 years.
“I would like to thank our staff for providing compassionate care for our patients living with HIV/AIDS and their families,” Mattson said. “Thank you to our patients for entrusting us [with] your care and our community partners for helping our organization expand our reach and provide much-needed services in the South Bay and South East areas. As we continue to celebrate 50 years of service in San Diego County, San Ysidro Health is committed to continuing to improve the health and well-being of the patients we serve. Access for all, including individuals living with HIV and their families.”
San Diego Councilmember Vivian Moreno, District 8, said CASA has provided centrical services for the South Bay community.
“CASA is a one-stop-shop service center dedicated to help improving the quality of life for people living with HIV or AIDS,” Moreno said. “It is also a resource for their families. I can’t stress this enough as a family member who just had a medical scare how important it is for these facilities to be open for our families so we understand how to navigate, not only what our family members are going through, but just the treacherous waters of finding services. It’s so important.”
Moreno said CASA enhances the quality of life for people living with HIV and AIDS, not only with social interaction, but mutual support for access to medical care, educational and recreational activities.
“The services that you provide ease the challenge and difficulty for people living with HIV/AIDS,” Morena said. “We all know we wouldn’t be here without the dedicated staff who run the day-to-day operations at this center. The CASA program has made a lasting impact for many and best wishes for 20 more or until we eradicate HIV.”
Terry Whitaker, SYHC vice president and chief operating officer, compared CASA’s impact to the holiday classic movie “It’s a Wonderful Life.” He said it is strange to think how each person’s life impacts the lives of so many others and like the film, San Ysidro is a small town that prospers because of the sacrifice and selflessness of individuals.
“CASA had an improbable, almost impossible start, which is worthy of a movie,” Whitaker said. “The concept for CASA was born when San Ysidro Health was failing financially, and the project depended on obtaining grant funding. Things were bleak.”
He thanked Rosana Scolari for taking a leap of faith and coming back to San Ysidro, dedicating a portion of her life to CASA and to all of its HIV programs.
“Your impact on this community is still being written,” Whitaker said. “While CASA has been the unlikely foundation of San Ysidro Health’s HIV programs and other programs are part of the story of celebration today. They are all interconnected. To you, our HIV staff past and present, your sacrifices and selflessness have saved lives, averted suffering and provided hope to people during their darkest moments of despair. Without you, you would have left an awful hole in the history of San Ysidro Health.”
Rosana Scolari, SYCH vice president of Senior Health Services, grew up in San Ysidro and joined the health center in 1997.
“Filled with emotions, I am here celebrating something that wasn’t supposed to be,” Scolari said. “Back then, [when first hired] I worked as a case manager. We didn’t have any primary care, so we had to take our people to UCSD’s Owen’s Clinic. At one time, I accompanied one of my clients and we waited for three hours. There was no sense of priority. When I realized that this was happening to every patient, I thought, ‘No, this is not right.’ This is when my mind started thinking that we needed something in South Bay.”
Scolari said, as destiny would have it, within a few months, data came out and the statistics of people diagnosed as HIV-positive in San Diego jumped from 6% to 11%.
“That’s when we got the attention that we needed,” Scolari said. “Finally, excited that we might be able to build something here in South Bay, we needed funds to address this. I was very hopeful and very stubborn. Many said that they wanted to go to UCSD or Hillcrest because they didn’t want to be seen here. I didn’t think so, so I had to try. In 1998, we started writing for five grants in 30 days. We turned in the grants and I left because there was no opportunity here for me at that time. At that time, I said that if we got these grants, I will be here and I’m going to make this work. We got those grants. Twenty years later, we are here. We proved everybody wrong, serving 1,500 patients and we have now served thousands more. It’s incredible. We managed to make this a success. We planted seeds that are growing.”
