Model and Strategy
San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) envisions a future where health justice is achieved for all, including people who use substances. SFAF’s Battery Powered project addresses the complex needs of people experiencing homelessness who inject drugs (PWID) to provide free, unfettered access to quality health services citywide, prevent HIV/HCV transmission, and reduce potential harms associated with substance use.
PWID are a priority community for SFAF. Our mission is to promote health, wellness, and social justice for communities most impacted by HIV. PWID are highly stigmatized and often do not feel welcome in health care or social service settings. In response, SFAF operates the Harm Reduction Center with a network of six mobile syringe access sites and outreach to homeless encampments throughout the city. SFAF will provide services to 18,000 PWID this year.
Through this project, SFAF collaborates with community partners who share our commitment to health justice, defined as the intersection of health equity and social justice. We recognize healthcare as a human right, that all people have dignity and have the right to be respected. No one’s choices should be judged.
Impact
Support for SFAF programs for people experiencing homelessness who inject drugs (PWID) will be used to provide free access to quality health services to more than 18,000 PWID over the next year.
SFAF offers comprehensive harm reduction services and safe syringe disposal citywide. At the Harm Reduction Center, staff members offer harm reduction support; vein care counseling; overdose prevention education, Narcan distribution; onsite support groups, individual counseling, contingency management, medical care including medication assisted treatment (MAT), sexual health services, HIV/HCV linkage to care and treatment. Staff also provide 50,000+ referrals to psychiatry, mental health services and residential substance abuse treatment programs, plus assistance to meet fundamental needs for food, shelter, I.D, clothing, showers, crisis intervention and hygiene supplies.
In the next 12 months SFAF will:
- Engage 2,000+ gay, bisexual, trans and queer (GBTQ) men, opiate/heroin users and homeless PWID through support groups about substance use, mental health counseling, health education and peer leadership.
- Train more than 1,500 PWID to supply 5,000 doses of Narcan, empowering community members to save over 600 lives.
Collect more than 200,000 improperly discarded syringes through SFAF’s 10 person team of fulltime safe syringe disposal staff
- Minimize barriers PWID face to testing and treatment through benefits assistance and treatment adherence.
- Improve the rate of early detection/diagnosis amongst PWID and increase access to treatment through ongoing client education and linkage to testing, diagnosis, and treatment in conjunction with other health offerings.
- Reduce PWID risk of overdose and HIV/HCV/STI infections by receiving comprehensive harm reduction services.
Leadership
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Joe Hollendoner
Executive Director
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Mike Discepola
Senior Director of Behavioral Health Services
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Laura Thomas
Director of Harm Reduction Policy