Spotlight On: Helena Bushong!

Helena Bushong’s Testimony

Helena is one of CWAP’s amazing clients who recently gave a personal testimony on her experiences living with AIDS and the importance of being in and staying in care. The testimony was given at the Chicago State HIV Service Planning Council South Side Community Input Forum. Helena was the final panelist to speak for the evening and brought many audience members to tears with her testimony that ended with a standing ovation.

This is Helena’s Story:

At the time of Helena’s initial diagnosis in 2002 she was told that her CD4 count was less than 74 and was immediately diagnosed with AIDS. Helena was a “late tester” and had been living with HIV for a long time prior to testing positive. In addition to AIDS she also had Hepatitis C.

After her diagnoses Helena was in shock and denial. She never thought that she was at risk since she had never acted promiscuously and was only intimate in serious committed relationships. Helena now sees part of her denial as a fear of the disease itself. Eventually, she came to the realization that she had to accept her diagnoses if she wanted to live.

Helena decided to face her fear by learning all she could about AIDS. Through the process of taking care of herself and educating herself she realized that in order to address her lack of self esteem and depression she needed to meet with a transgender counselor. With the support of her counselor Helena made the transition to a woman. After the transition is when Helena contacted CWAP and began working as a peer outreach worker and found sanctity in the support of other women.

As Helena reflected on her experiences, she named some obstacles to adherence.

“Something that health care providers typically don’t realize is that patients just get tired of this disease consuming part of their lives.” This is why Helena believes that she and many others tend to fall out of treatment for some time. “The routine of taking medication at the same time everyday starts to control aspects of your social life, making sure that I’m home by 11pm would prevent me from simple activities like seeing a movie with friends.” Helena also talked about some of the issues that the African American community still needs to address, “when the outbreak of AIDS started, the gay community came together and started support groups, formed coalitions, and opened clinics to help one another. The African American community has yet to react in this same supportive manner, people are dying but the issue is still not being addressed.” Helena ended her testimony with, “in the end this is a request for the community to be empowered. There is a healthcare crime in effect and we have the responsibility to address that.”