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Vol. 49 • No. 9 • February 28-March 6, 2019
SF health officials embrace non-daily PrEP dosing regimen
by Matthew S. Bajko
Courtesy Project Open Hand
Paul Hepfer is the new CEO of Project Open Hand.
Open Hand names new CEO by Alex Madison
A
straight ally will soon become the new chief executive officer of Project Open Hand, a nonprofit that provides nutritious meals to critically ill people and seniors. Mountain View resident Paul Hepfer will join Project Open Hand starting March 18. He will replace Mark Ryle, a gay man who left to become president of the Saint Francis Foundation. Hepfer, 53, has 20-plus years of experience in community health services. He will be departing from his current role as senior vice president of programs at the Health Trust, a Silicon Valleybased nonprofit that provides support to South Bay residents living with HIV/AIDS, homeless people, children, and others. In that role he led Health Trust’s service efforts in HIV/AIDS programming, Meals on Wheels, and communitybased chronic disease prevention and management services. “I feel that this is the right time and the right position and right organization,” Hepfer said. “If I was going to make this move to CEO, it really needed to be with an organization whose mission really enticed me.” In the first few months on the job, Hepfer will be learning a lot about the operational side of Project Open Hand, which prepares 2,500 meals a day and 200 bags of groceries for clients in San Francisco and Oakland. “I’m really excited to get into the operational side of things,” he said. “I am amazed at the volume and quality of service Open Hand is able to provide. They provide just under 1 million meals to people every year and I want to learn more about how that really works.” He also looks forward to advancing the work set forth by the organization and Ryle, including“helping advance food as medicine and bring that model to other health conditions outside of HIV.” This includes individuals with diabetes, congestive heart failure, and other complex health conditions. Project Open Hand partnered with UCSF on scientific studies, published in 2017, that tracked data of the health benefits associated with food as medicine and it showed the positive relationship with various illnesses and having access to nutritious food. See page 15 >>
A
s health officials continue to urge more people at risk of becoming HIV-positive to take PrEP, the once-a-day pill that widely protects against being infected with the virus if taken as prescribed, San Francisco leaders are embracing a new dosing regimen that doesn’t require continual usage of the drug. Dubbed PrEP 2-1-1, it is designed for those who are only intermittently sexually active. It requires a person to take two pills of Truvada (tenofovir/emtricitabine) at least two hours – but preferably 24 hours – prior to engaging in sex. They then take another pill 24 hours later, and if done having sex, a final pill another 24 hours after that. Should they be on vacation for a week, and plan to have sex during the entire time, then they would continue to take one Truvada pill every day of their break. When done with their vacation, they would need to take one last dose of PrEP 48 hours after their last sexual encounter. “We think it’s going to bring a whole lot of people to PrEP who previously did not feel like PrEP was for them,” said Dr. Chris Hall, vice president of medical affairs at the San Francisco AIDS
Courtesy SFAF
Strut director of nursing Pierre-Cédric Crouch
Foundation, during a recent talk about the new dosing regimen. Starting March 1 the nonprofit is launching a pilot study of PrEP 2-1-1 at Strut, its health center
Courtesy SFAF
A Strut flier explains PrEP 2-1-1 dosing.
for men in the Castro. It is seen as a first step in providing data to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in order to have the federal agency officially recommend PrEP 2-1-1. See page 14 >>
Concord LGBT center lays off counseling, food pantry staff by Matthew S. Bajko
I
n a move that has raised questions about the future of its counseling services, as well as the tenure of its executive director, an LGBT community center in Contra Costa County laid off the majority of its behavioral health and clinical staff last week. The Rainbow Community Center in Concord abruptly let go the counseling programs’ clinical director, case management program director, and lead case manager and patient care coordinator, as well as a clinician who was seeing clients, Friday, February 22. They were given 10 minutes to gather their belongings before being escorted out of the building, a number of people associated with the center told the Bay Area Reporter. Their sudden departure left them little time to contact their patients to inform them that their counselors would no longer be able to see them. Several sources noted to the B.A.R. that the counselors’ inability to properly terminate their cases violates the profession’s ethical code. It could also further traumatize the center’s LGBT clients, many of whom were already dealing with trauma, suicidal ideation, and abandonment issues due to being rejected by their families because of their sexual orientation and gender identity, said retired registered nurse Vance Drouillard, one of
Rainbow Community Center Executive Director Kevin McAllister
the staffers let go. In addition to overseeing case management at the center, he was also an HIV health educator and ran the center’s HIV testing program and HIV outreach, according to his staff bio. “They fired us and escorted us out with no regard to the clients. They simply didn’t let us cancel appointments or anything,” said Drouillard, a gay man who had worked for the center in various capacities for six years. The center also let go its food pantry pro-
gram manager last week, according to sources. The layoffs come as the center prepares to host its annual crab feed, a major fundraiser for it, this Saturday. As of Wednesday morning the center had yet to officially announce the staff layoffs or update its staff list on its website. Its most recent posts to its Facebook page included links to stories about LGBT movies and new hours for its thrift store. The staff tumult has led to rumors of the imminent departure of the center’s executive director, Kevin McAllister, who was hired last June. He replaced the interim executive director who had been brought on following the December 2017 retirement of executive director Ben-David Barr, Ph.D., who left due to health reasons after 10 years of leading the agency. McAllister and Ken Carlson, president of the center’s board and a Pleasant Hill city councilman, did not respond to the B.A.R.’s requests for comment Tuesday. Reached Tuesday evening at the center, McAllister declined to answer detailed questions about the staff layoffs and the future of the counseling program, saying he was working with the board on a statement the center would soon release. “I would suggest you speak to the board president to get additional information,” he said. See page 15 >>
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