Services & Outreach

Volunteers

The Volunteer Training is held the first three Wednesdays in October each year. Please contact us for specific information and registration. It is these volunteers who are matched to provide assistance to clients.

Volunteers are the key to our success. Serving on the board of directors, providing assistance to clients and support to our staff, volunteers participate in all aspects of our organization. Heart to Heart could not offer the same level of service in our community without their generous support.

If you are interested in volunteering please e-mail: info@bluemountainheart.org

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Client Services

For people living with HIV/AIDS, Heart to Heart offers case management and service referrals including medical, dental, psychological, financial, legal and social support. Social supports extend to informed and caring matched volunteers, emergency food and housing, and transportation assistance. Emergency, employment, and nutritional counseling are offered. Client advocacy, and alternative treatment resources are also available.

Spanish language services are always available.

Heart to Heart maintains a high level of confidentiality for those seeking HIV testing, people living with HIV/AIDS, their partners, family, and friends.

When case management is done on a prevention basis, it not only improves the quality of life for a client, but it is the most effective way to prevent secondary transmission of the virus.

Information regarding the demographics of Heart to Heart's clients in respect to gender, race/ethnicity, risk exposure, and age are available through the office.

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Prevention

Heart to Heart focuses its prevention efforts towards those at highest risk for contracting HIV including the sex and needle sharing partners of HIV+ people, injection drug users, and men who have sex with men. Following national trends, the number of women and youth infected with HIV in our area is steadily rising. To combat the epidemic Heart to Heart works with other agencies in the community to bridge gaps in HIV prevention efforts.

HIV Counseling and Testing

Heart to Heart goes out into the community to offer free and anonymous oral HIV testing to reach people at highest risk for contracting HIV. Test results are usually available in 3-5 days. Testing is also available at the Heart to Heart office by appointment.. Students at Paine Alternative School are offered HIV on-campus counseling and testing once a year.

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Latino Outreach

A bi-cultural Latino outreach worker and bi-lingual Spanish outreach coordinator work with Latino men who have sex with men and their sex and needle sharing partners to maintain access to education, harm reduction materials, and HIV counseling and testing services in Walla Walla and Columbia Counties. Outreach is conducted in bars, labor camps, migrant head start offices, and canneries in Walla Walla and Columbia Counties of Washington state.

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Educational Programs

Heart to Heart works closely with the community to provide continued HIV education in an effort to heighten public awareness and dispel myths surrounding HIV and its transmission and includes collaboration with:

• chemical and alcohol treatment facilities in the city of Walla Walla to provide HIV education to outpatients
  
• local schools to assure compliance with Washington state HIV education standards
  
• service agencies including Walla Walla Community Hospice and Dayton General Hospital for the continued education of staff
  
• Masters of Social Work and sexuality classes at local colleges
  
• Migrant Head Start programs

Heart to Heart also organizes:

• the community World AIDS Day memorial service
  
• Blue Mountain Heart to Heart's Volunteer Training for matched volunteers
  
• HIV/AIDS advocacy training for the community at large
  
• a quarterly newsletter

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Syringe Exchange

Also known as the Prevention Plus Program, Heart to Heart's syringe exchange began in 1997 and serves Walla Walla and Columbia Counties in Washington state. The program is based in harm reduction models and offers information on vein care, using bleach kits, tips for avoiding overdose, and taking care of wound botulism in addition to providing a one for one needle exchange. Outreach workers offer injection drug users an oral HIV test and will refer to medical professionals and treatment facilities. All of the Prevention Plus Program information and human resources are also offered in Spanish. Heart to Heart works closely with the Walla Walla Health Department, local medical clinics, and drug and alcohol treatment facilities to assure that injection drug users are referred to the exchange. Nevertheless, fear and ambiguous laws surrounding syringe exchange keep injection drug users from coming to the fixed site located at the Heart to Heart office. In response, Heart to Heart has trained outreach workers to conduct secondary exchange within the surrounding counties.

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