Although I’d said that we were not going to do anything but visit family on PEI - and enjoy the memories evoked by red soil and rolling hills, we called AIDS PEI - just in case. “There are only two of us here, and I’m heading out in about 20 minutes, but if you can, drop by this afternoon,” said the kind woman on the phone.
We enjoyed a wonderful reception at their centrally located (and easy to find) office. I was thrilled to find both staff members had practiced Therapeutic Touch. In fact, they said there is a Rainbow Room at the Hospital in Halifax where anyone wishing treatment can receive it. Sadly, the Charlottetown Hospital was not ready to embrace TT, yet.
We talked about isolation, the lack of anonymous testing and HIV specialists (which means AIDS PEI staff drive people to appointments in Halifax and Moncton), and learned that women are not using the office - something I could not understand having been so pleasantly surprised by the gender balance in this office.
Sexual health is not a topic that islanders seem ready to embrace, and yet taxpayers are willing to pay the costs of HIV medications - a strange way to operate when you look at the cost savings of prevention. To that end. one of the volunteers spends almost all his time doing school presentations. We were moved by the mighty hard work that a dedicated few are doing on the smallest of Canada’s provinces.
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