Lost but not Forgotten - where is Carl Bean?

Los Angeles has the dishonor of being the largest city (by far) that no longer has a skilled nursing facility or hospice specifically for the HIV community. The various agencies that failed to support such a facility should be ashamed of themselves. Having been a repeat client of the last such facility, The Carl Bean House, a facility of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF), I am one among many who morn its lost, as there is no longer a suitable facility for people being discharged from the hospital who still need nursing care that is sensitive to HIV issues. Having also been to several of the facilities currently available can only say that any hospital sending patients to these facilities should be disciplined for abusing their patients. The remaining facilities are equipped with careless nurses, inadequate hygiene and nutrition facilities, and tend to be abusive to patients who are ambulatory enough to speak up for themselves. When I told these things to the aftercare person at a prestigious hospital, she remarked that she had no idea as they had never even visited these facilities. How do you refer someone to a facility about which you know nothing with a clear conscience. My observations are shared by other patients who have shared my experience as well as the ambulance drivers that service those facilities.

My physician and several others I have had the opportunity to poll all share the opinion that closing Carl Bean was a grave mistake as they have nowhere to send their patients. Funding from the county board was cut off because of the political unpopularity of AHF's executive director. AHF had the opportunity to use some of their other funds, or to actively seek other funding, but they chose not to. The county OAPP also had an opertunity to seek another agency to administer the Carl Bean facility - but they chose not to. I understand the need for our support of aid to Africa as their situation is dire, but I find it unconscionable that we send funding anywhere before our local population is cared for. My blood boils when I hear any of the financing news about the Iraq war. Just a fraction of that money would make all the difference in the world to the AIDS community.

The Carl Bean House sits empty - unused - waiting for someone to step up to the plate and take the reins there. Someone could be creative and form a coalition of agencies to step up to the plate too. I offer an open invitation to anyone interested to join me in the pursuit of reactivating this sorely needed facility.