Local philanthropist donates $3M to expand DAP’s medical facilities
The Desert AIDS Project received its largest gift in the organization’s history at Saturday night’s 22nd annual Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards.
Just four years after announcing a $1 million gift to establish the Annette Bloch Cancer Care Center at Desert AIDS Project at the 2012 Steve Chase Humanitarian Awards gala, Bloch used Saturday’s gala to announce a $3 million donation for the expansion of D.A.P.’s medical facilities.
The 2016 gala highlighted successes from the past year that included not only The DOCK, a new sexual wellness clinic, and the nation’s first-ever, region-wide HIV testing and access to care initiative, Get Tested Coachella Valley, but also its year-old Career Building Program, D.A.P. officials said in a release.
Bloch’s intention was to signal her ongoing faith in helping D.A.P. fulfill its mission of enhancing community health and well-being. In D.A.P.’s immediate service area alone, the federal government reports that more than 40,000 low-income individuals are not linked to a healthcare provider. While D.A.P. will continue to serve the community as an AIDS service organization, this unserved population segment of 40,000 will also be part of the focus of the organization’s future growth, officials said.
“In 2015, D.A.P. served 3,600 men and women – a 65% increase over the prior year,” CEO David Brinkman told the gala crowd. “I lie awake at night wondering how we will keep pace with the needs of our community. Where will we ever find the space we need?”
Officials said Bloch wanted to begin answering that question because when she took her first tour of D.A.P., she said, “I couldn’t believe what I saw … how fortunate we are to have a facility like this in Palm Springs” as she went on to remark on the on-site dental clinic, pharmacy, and housing complex, as well as the caring and dedicated staff she met. This “all under one roof” set of wraparound services, providing a medical home for their clients, has set Desert AIDS Project apart from other clinics, making it a national model for providing both primary and HIV-specialty care to its clients.
According to the release, Bloch’s 2012 gift has enabled Desert AIDS Project to provide ongoing services to its clients who are susceptible to certain kinds of cancer, due to their HIV infection. Thanks to this million dollar gift, among other services, D.A.P. now routinely provides all clients with anoscopies, to diagnose and treat anal dysplasia before it can advance to anal cancer. That led to research that is beginning to attract international attention as Dr. Steven Scheibel, D.A.P.’s Director of Research, presented recent research findings at “HPV 2015,” the 30th International Papillomavirus Conference.
Just a month earlier, Desert AIDS Project became a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) as it was charged with delivery of comprehensive primary health care services in a community identified as needing them the most. While becoming an FQHC doesn’t change D.A.P.’s status as an AIDS service organization, it ensures that they can also provide primary health care to any family unit, regardless of financial condition or chronic condition, according to the release.
“Even if there was a cure tomorrow and AIDS was wiped from the face of the earth, there would still be much work to be done by Desert AIDS Project,” said Brinkman. “Many of the patients in the D.A.P. clinics have been co-infected with a variety of other conditions, including Hepatitis C, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, high blood pressure, and a number of other serious concerns. In addition, our client population is aging – more than half of them are over the age of 55 – and now confronting the conditions that come with those ‘golden years.'”
