County Skipped on AIDS Funds : Public Education Money to Go to Private Groups

The state has decided to bypass the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services and award $1.25 million in AIDS public education money to private agencies, in part because a special advisory committee believes the county Board of Supervisors has been dragging its feet on financing such programs.

The decision, which was made by Dr. Kenneth Kizer, state health director, means that the bulk of the state funds will go directly to AIDS Project/Los Angeles and the Gay and Lesbian Community Service Center, groups that until now have been involved primarily with educational programs aimed at the gay community. Spokesmen for both groups said they now are planning extensive programs aimed at heterosexuals.

Ed Mendoza, the state’s assistant deputy director for public health, said Thursday that the decision to not give the money to the county agency was the result of several factors, including the existence in Los Angeles of the private agencies that already are conducting educational programs.

But Dr. Michael Roth, co-chairman of the state Legislative AIDS Advisory Committee, said his panel had recommended that the financing be withheld from the county because the Board of Supervisors “has been extremely unresponsive to the needs associated with the AIDS crisis.”

The panel was set up this year by Senate President Pro Tem David A. Roberti (D-Los Angeles) to advise the state Department of Health Services on AIDS programs. Its members are appointed by the governor, the Speaker of the Assembly and Roberti.

Roth, a Santa Monica allergist, said the state committee would have been “more than willing” to have the county administer the funds, but its members were afraid that the board would not have been willing to conduct the kinds of public health education programs on AIDS that it believes are necessary.

“Their ability to cope with the medical needs associated with this problem has been minimal,” Roth said in an interview.

“It’s time to expand public information programs and time that the rest of the community knows what the risks are. The county has done nothing in this respect,” Roth added.

In recent months, public health experts have been emphasizing the need for extensive public education programs that dispel the myths that have sprung up about AIDS and that give practical information on how to avoid it to various elements of the public who are at risk of acquiring the disease.

Considering that neither a cure nor an effective treatment exists for AIDS, these experts say that preventive education is the only way to slow the rising incidence of the disease. In addition, they have said that every case that is prevented results in a savings of $100,000 in medical and hospital bills. More than 1,000 cases have occurred in Los Angeles County to date.

The $1.25 million to be given to the private agencies is Los Angeles County’s share of the $4 million appropriated by the Legislature for statewide AIDS education programs in the coming fiscal year. The county received almost $300,000 for such purposes in the current fiscal year, Roth said.

State health officials have pointed out that San Francisco has been spending much more of its own money on AIDS education than has Los Angeles County. According to Dr. James Chin, chief of infectious diseases for the state, San Francisco spent $550,000 in county funds to augment federal and state funds this year, compared to $128,000 by Los Angeles County.

Supervisor Ed Edelman, who spearheaded the creation of a health facility at the Gay and Lesbian Community Services Center, downplayed the importance of the county being bypassed on the AIDS money. It is not important who dispenses the money, he said, as long as it is being spent in Los Angeles County on public education about the disease.

Health experts, however, have been concerned that the absence of a single agency to control the money may result in less coordination between the various programs.

Mickey Silverstein, press deputy to Supervisor Pete Schabarum, said the main reason the board has been seen by some as unresponsive is that the “board reflects Middle America.”

“Until it has really been brought to (the board’s) attention that this (AIDS) is a public health problem, it is not one of their concerns,” Silverstein said.

“But now it has been brought to their attention, and people like Pete who never thought much about it, said we (had) better get in there and educate the public. You’ll see a lot more coming out of the (county) health department. The federal government has not been doing much about AIDS education either.”

Last week, Schabarum asked the Department of Health Services to prepare a pamphlet that Silverstein described as being “based on everyday language--straightforward language that is within the bounds of good taste.”

Mendoza, the state health official, said the advisory committee’s recommendation to bypass the county Department of Health Services was not shared by his agency. He said the state has been working with the county agency on other AIDS matters and has found its work to be satisfactory.

Dr. Martin Finn, public health medical director for the county, said he thought the committee was simply unhappy with the amount of money Los Angeles County has been putting into educational programs.

“Next year we’ll see whether they will be more pleased at what the county itself has put in,” Finn said.