Whitman-Walker Health
Whitman-Walker Health, formerly Whitman-Walker Clinic, is a non-profit community health center in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area with a special expertise in HIV/AIDS healthcare and LGBT healthcare. Chartered as an affirming health center for the gay and lesbian community in 1978, Whitman-Walker was one of the first responders to the HIV/AIDS epidemic in D.C. and became a leader in HIV/AIDS education, prevention, diagnosis and treatment. In recent years, Whitman-Walker has expanded its services to include primary healthcare services, a stronger focus on queer women's care and youth services.
WWH is named for poet Walt Whitman and Dr. Mary Edwards Walker, a noted Civil War–era physician in the District and women's rights activist.
Operations
Through three sites in D.C., WWH provides a number of health care services to the D.C. metro area. They include primary medical and dental care; mental health and addictions counseling and treatment; HIV education, prevention and testing; legal services; medical adherence case management; a pharmacy open to all; and more.Whitman-Walker's newest medical facility is at 1525 14th Street, NW. This 42,000 square foot building opened in May 2015. It houses 28 medical exam rooms, nine dental chairs, a street-facing pharmacy, behavioral health therapy rooms and more.
Administration continues to operate out of the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center located at 1701 14th Street, NW in the Logan Circle neighborhood of Washington, D.C. WWH also provides primary medical services, dental care and legal services out of its Max Robinson Center in the primarily African-American neighborhood of Anacostia in Southeast D.C.
Annually, WWH produces The Walk to End HIV, formerly AIDS Walk Washington, which is held in October, and is the largest community-based fundraising event for WWH's HIV services.
History
1970s
Whitman-Walker was founded in November 1973 as the Gay Men's VD Clinic, part of the Washington Free Clinic. The VD Clinic operated in the basement of the Georgetown Lutheran Church with an all-volunteer staff. In 1976, after receiving complaints from the church, the VD Clinic split off as an independent organization and hired its first full-time staff.Whitman-Walker Health was chartered as "Whitman-Walker Clinic" by the government of the District of Columbia on January 13, 1978. The D.C. Department of Human Resources provided WWH $15,000, the first city funds to support the organization. In October, Whitman-Walker Clinic opened a new, rented facility at 1606 17th Street, NW.
1980s
In 1980, a financial crisis threatened the clinic. The administrator resigned, programs were eliminated and the clinic moved into a more affordable space on 18th Street in Adams Morgan.In 1981, Jim Graham became the clinic's president and Larry Medley became the third WWC administrator. Whitman-Walker hired its first board-certified medical technologist for an in-house laboratory offering testing for various sexually transmitted diseases.
On June 5, 1981, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report featured an account of five young gay men in Los Angeles with cases of rare pneumonia. This was the first medical report on what would famously come to be known as HIV/AIDS.
In 1983, as AIDS began taking a larger toll, WWC assumed a leadership role in fighting the epidemic. The clinic launched its AIDS Education Fund to provide up-to-date information, counseling and direct services to people with AIDS; the Buddy program to help people living with AIDS was started; an AIDS information hotline was created; and an HIV/AIDS prevention advertising campaign was launched. To support these new programs, WWC benefited from D.C.'s first AIDS fundraiser which raised $4,400.
On April 4, 1983, WWC presented the first D.C. AIDS Forum at the Lisner Auditorium at George Washington University. The forum distributed AIDS prevention information and catered to the 1,200 men in attendance. A second AIDS forum for people of color was held on September 28.
In 1984, WWC opened its AIDS Evaluation Unit, the first gay, community-based medical unit in the U.S. devoted to the evaluation and diagnosis of AIDS symptoms. Fifty-five patients were treated the first year and 50 percent had AIDS.
The first support group for people with AIDS began. Sunnye Sherman, a WWC client, stepped forward as one of the first women openly living with AIDS in the nation. She acted as a strong support system for other people with AIDS and educated the community on her experience.
Whitman-Walker opened the Robert N. Schwartz, M.D., house, the city's first home for people with AIDS, in 1985. The second house opened in December.
Later that year, WWC began anonymous testing for what was then called HTLV-III, but is now called HIV. Whitman-Walker became the largest testing site in the region.
The AIDS treatment center rapidly expanded and became a full-time clinic in 1986.
Through 1986, WWC continued to expand HIV/AIDS services. The housing program grew with the opening of four houses. Whitman-Walker also opened a food bank and hired its first full-time lawyer to provide clients with legal services related to AIDS discrimination. These services largely consisted of wills, powers of attorney and disability entitlements.
In 1987, WWC opened a dental clinic for patients with HIV/AIDS, one of only three in the country at the time. Whitman-Walker also opened the Scott Harper House for gay men and lesbians recovering from substance abuse, a facility still open to this day.
Also in 1987, WWC moved to a larger building, located at 1407 S Street, NW. This facility would operate as the organization's headquarters for more than two decades. Whitman-Walker was able to purchase the building in 1988. At this time, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry and the Eugene and Agnes E. Meyer Foundation were the clinic's primary financial supporters. Simultaneously, individual contributions from the local LGBTQ community made up about half of the organization's income.
Whitman-Walker brought the first AIDS Walk to D.C. in 1987.
Whitman-Walker encountered resistance when it began to offer services through the Northern Virginia AIDS Project in 1987. Although the clinic had started its Northern Virginia AIDS Project in 1987, it was unable to find space for its operations for some time. In one case, the clinic was denied housing by a landlord who allegedly did so out of fear and/or homophobia. The landlord claimed the clinic had not met certain leasing and payment requirements, and a judge agreed. Whitman-Walker eventually found other space and opened its Northern Virginia AIDS Project office in Arlington, offering case management and education services.
In 1988, WWC expanded its services throughout the D.C. metropolitan region, providing access to new HIV treatments an opening an on-site, at-cost pharmacy.
1990s
The Lesbian Services and Mental Health Services programs had full-time, paid staff.In December 1990, WWC dedicated the Stewart B. McKinney House, its first house specifically for families with HIV.
Passage of the Ryan White CARE Act in 1991 led to the infusion of federal grant funds, helping to reinforce the clinic's finances. Whitman-Walker expanded to include a transportation service, interpreting services, a Spanish-speaking physician and a full-time dentist.
In June 1991, WWC began construction of a new outpatient care center for people with AIDS. The center was dedicated as the Bill Austin Day Treatment and Care Center. Then-First Lady, Barbara Bush, made a highly publicized visit to open the Austin Center.
In 1992, WWC opened its Max Robinson Center in Southeast D.C. and Whitman-Walker Clinic of Southern Maryland. The Lesbian Health Clinic also opened and offered a wide range of gynecological and wellness services to lesbians and bisexual women in the region.
The clinic's expansion efforts caused conflict with some other service groups. For example, in 1993 WWC applied for a million-dollar HIV/AIDS grant and competed for the grant against a coalition of primarily African-American service and outreach groups for it. The clinic won the grant, angering some community leaders and activists who felt the city had discriminated against black organizations in favor of the white-led Clinic. Local community leaders also opposed the clinic's expanding housing program, fearing for the health and safety of their communities.
Whitman-Walker adopted oral testing for HIV in 1993 before most major AIDS clinics in the U.S. That same year, WWC dedicated the Elizabeth Taylor Medical Center, designed to provide holistic care to patients with all service needs met under one roof, named in honor of actress and AIDS activist Dame Elizabeth Taylor. Taylor attended the building's opening ceremony.
Further expansion came in 1994 as the Northern Virginia AIDS Project of Whitman-Walker Clinic grew and was formally renamed Whitman-Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia. The HIV testing and counseling program expanded to Max Robinson Center.
In 1995, the clinic established a program under which patients could sell their life insurance policies to the organization in exchange for an annuity. Critics claimed that Whitman-Walker would benefit only if its patients died, making this a conflict of interest.
The 1997 AIDS Walk Washington was the organization's most successful Walk ever. About 25,000 people helped raise $1.7 million.
At the beginning of 1998, Washington AIDS Partnership awarded WWC with a $42,000 grant to expand the clinic's Needle Exchange Program. The program conducted one-to-one syringe exchanges. The program counseled drug users, administered HIV tests and significantly reduced the transmission of HIV. Unfortunately, later that year, Congress passed a District budget with restrictions on federal funding for organizations conducting needle exchange programs. In response, an independent corporation was incorporated to fill the need: Prevention Works, Inc.
In early February 1998, WWC Legal Services and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court Case of Bragdon v. Abbott, a case of discrimination by a dentist to his patient who was HIV-positive. On June 25, 1998, the Supreme Court of the patient. With the successful use of the Americans with Disabilities Act, this case made it harder for doctors to justify discrimination against HIV-positive patients.
Jim Graham, long-time executive director of WWC, resigned at the end of 1998 to serve on the D.C. City Council representing Ward One. Graham's replacement was Elliott Johnson, who came to the clinic from the Los Angeles County Health Department. Johnson briefly served as executive director.
In 1999, the counseling and testing program went mobile with a van that provided testing at health fairs, festivals and bars. Whitman-Walker more than tripled its testing rates through this outreach. This program is still in effect today and supports the 10,000 free HIV tests that WWH administers annually.