Program Helps Seniors Learn, Cope With 

HIV

By Jerry Libonati, Sun Sentinel

June 4, 2004

South Florida's expanding senior population is active, politically involved and has the highest incidence of senior HIV in the nation. 

"The face of HIV is getting gray hair," said Paul Spearing of Oakland Park, program analyst with the Senior HIV Intervention Project.

Spearing said most people usually do not associate AIDS with the elderly because seniors are not regarded as being sexually active. That, he said, is a myth. Heterosexual women over 60 constitute one of the fastest growing risk groups for HIV, Spearing said.

"When anyone 65 or 70 says they are having symptoms, the doctor never asks "How's your sex life?' He says, `Well, you're getting old,'" said Spearing, 65. "Symptoms like loss of appetite, diarrhea and forgetfulness mimic old age. It could be old age or the beginning stages of HIV."

The Senior HIV Intervention Project is a tri-county venture that provides information and referrals for services to citizens over 50. A nonprofit organization, it is sponsored by the Broward County Health Department in response to South Florida's cases of senior HIV. 

The senior project is on East Broward Boulevard, but will soon move to the Health Department offices near State Road 84 in Fort Lauderdale, 2421-A SW Sixth Ave.

Broward has 1,956 reported AIDS cases in seniors, representing 13 percent of all reported cases in the county, according to researchers at the National Institute on Aging. Health officials say the national average is 11 percent.

The greatest increases in senior HIV are occurring among minority groups, said Jolene Mullins, a Hollywood resident and Early Interventions consultant. 

"Women, blacks and Hispanic women," she said. "We've also seen increases in senior men who have sex with men."

Apathy and misinformation regarding seniors and HIV is not limited to the medical profession, but persists among seniors themselves, Spearing said. 

"I've heard an older gentleman say `I don't have that much longer to live so why should I care?'" said Spearing, who first became involved with the issue through his Episcopalian church in Pittsburgh where he lived until 2001. 

"Or they might say, we have the drugs now and you can live for a long time." 

Spearing said life can be extended, but it may not be as comfortable. There are many setbacks with the drugs, which are often numerous, expensive and fraught with side effects.

Spearing conducts presentations at senior housing communities and nursing homes and goes equipped with free condoms. 

Spearing says most institutions are eager to provide condoms for their residents, except in some religion-based establishments that view the practice as promoting promiscuity.

But sex is not the only way to contract the disease. For seniors on a fixed income, finances may drive some to engage in another kind of risky behavior. Spearing asks his audience how many times they have shared needles and gets a positive response. 

"Not only drug users do that, but general populations, too," Spearing said. "If they can't afford diabetes medication they might borrow needles that have been used."

In the past, the senior project has come under fire for not addressing minority communities. But that has been amended with the addition of three educators who, in addition to their work in the general population, also work with at-risk communities. 

Spearing teaches in the gay and bisexual community, Edid Gonzalez of Tamarac works with Hispanics and LarMont Robinson Sr. of Lauderhill works with the African-American community. 

Consultant Mullins said education for blacks and Hispanics is particularly important because of cultural and religious taboos. 

"In general, there's a lot of stigma attached to HIV and when you add the more traditional seniors, who have always thought of HIV as a young people's disease, there is even more," she said. "We are very concerned with the increase in this [senior] community."

For information on senior HIV, call the AIDS program at 954-467-4779.