Agency provides counseling to AIDS, HIV patients

When Karen Sims found out she was HIV-positive in 1988, she went through a rush of emotions: anger, guilt, fear.

After struggling with her feelings for 10 years, she finally heard about an Atlanta agency called Positive Impact, the only known Atlanta-area non-profit agency that provides free mental health counseling to HIV patients.

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Chandler Brown/cmbrown@ajc.com

Anthony Estelle is a counselor at Positive Impact. He focuses on sex education and counsels African-American men trying to come to terms with their sexuality.

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Chandler Brown/cmbrown@ajc.com

Positive Impact executive director Paul Plate stands in front of a painting signed by some of the agency’s 7,000 clients.

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“I fell in love,” the now-47-year-old Atlanta resident recalled of her first counseling session. “They don’t treat you like a client. They treat you like you’re part of a family.”

This weekend, the Positive Impact family is growing. The organization — one of a handful nationwide geared specifically to HIV patients — is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a citywide event to raise awareness and money.

Early Saturday evening, several dozen volunteers will host dinner or cocktail parties at the location of their choosing. Each has invited at least 10 guests who will donate $50 apiece. At 8 p.m., the parties will move to a combined celebration in the club room of Viewpoint, a Midtown Atlanta high-rise condo complex.

The agency hopes to raise $15,000. More information can be obtained at new.positiveimpact-atl.org or by calling 404-589-9780.

“We’re not looking at this as a fund-raiser. We’re looking at this as a friend-raiser,” said Positive Impact board member Paul Seros.

Founded in 1993, Positive Impact matches HIV and AIDS patients with professional mental health counselors. They meet one-on-one at the agency’s office on Ralph McGill Boulevard or at partner organizations around the city. Services are free.

Positive Impact “is a very strong voice for people to not forget that HIV is not just a physical illness,” said Tracy Elliott, executive director of AID Atlanta, which works closely with Positive Impact. “It has a significant mental health component as well.”

Besides counseling, Positive Impact also provides sex education workshops and plans to open a substance-abuse treatment facility later this year. The agency’s nearly $1.5 million budget comes from government grants, fund-raisers and private donations.

Former AID Atlanta worker Paul Plate left that agency in the early 1990s to help create an organization aimed at helping people wrap their brains around what many see as a death sentence. What’s more, many lower-income patients often cannot afford medical treatment, much less private counseling, he said.

“A lot of people struggle with shame and stigma, or they have some other issues where shame is being revisited, like substance abuse, child abuse or domestic violence,” said Plate, 59. “An upper-class person with cancer might not have those same kinds of issues.”

Plate is Positive Impact’s first and only executive director. He estimated that his 20-person staff has counseled as many as 7,000 patients in 15 years.

Two years ago, while Anthony Estelle was finishing his master’s degree in counseling at Argosy University, he contacted Positive Impact on the advice of a friend. He ended up interning for a year and liked it so much, he is now a full-time staff member.

Estelle, 34, who is black, counsels African-American men who are struggling with their sexuality as it relates to other areas of their lives, like religion and self-esteem. “Homosexuality is still very much taboo” in the African-American community, he said.

Working at Positive Impact is more rewarding, he said, than traditional counseling.

“When you work with someone who cares, that makes a big difference,” Estelle said. “It’s not just a job.”

That’s what attracted Karen Sims a decade ago. She still attends weekly therapy sessions.

“You’re not just being listened to, you’re being heard,” said Sims, the only Positive Impact client who agreed to be interviewed for this article. “They treat you with respect, like a real person with real feelings. I’ll keep going until they throw me out.”