Nothing Close...

I live in small town Oklahoma.  We're failry rural & there aren't a lot of opportunities for much of anything other than churches & hole-in-the-wall beer bars.  My HIV specialist is 120+ miles away & my pharmacy is in Pennsylvania.  If we want to do anything we have to go to Fort Smith, AR almost 40 miles away.

For me the problem is beyond simple recreational purposes, it's how it impacts my health.  Before telemedicine, I had to make a 2 hour, 1 way drive to Tulsa, 4 times a year.  Quite frankly, the drive wasn't easy on me.  I don't have a nearby pharmacy that even carries my meds, so they have to be mailed to me.  Normally this is fine, but sometimes they screw up & it's damned difficult to deal with.  

While out on an errand this morning, my roomie picked up a brochure for HOPE (Health Outreach Prevention Education, Inc.)  They're a non-profit organization handling HIV/Hep C prevention, education & health promotion.  They listed several places you could go for testing & the like.  The only problem is they're all in Tulsa, 2 hours away.

We have a health department that can run a HIV test, but I think it's the type that still takes a week to get a reply.    Even then, there won't be any counseling or treatment available if you're +.  I went there & they offered me next to nothing.  I tried going through a place in Tulsa that made it sound like they were going to be able to get me everything under the sun.  The touted healthcare, dental, meds, counseling, even assistance with housing & bills.  

The reality of the situation is that if you are homeless or about to be, they might be able to get you a month of rent.  If you live in Tulsa & have transportation, they offer some counseling.  Everything else are services offered by the state.  As for the healthcare, you pretty much have to be on Medicaid or have Ryan White accept you.  Even then you still have to have transportation.  Dental is mostly for minors or only available in extreme circumstances for those people in Tulsa & there was a huge waiting list.

The only thing I got from my encounter with the agency was an application for ADAP.  Which I had to deal with myself.  I had to deal with it every 3 - 6 months & it was all on me.  If not for my roomie, I wouldn't have been able to handle it back then.  It was up to me to seek out treatment, it was up to me to deal with ADAP, & to file for SSI.  

Basically, if you live in rural Oklahoma, you're on your own.  Things haven't changed at all.  

Cya...