About AIDS

Since its inception in 1988, the Wright House Wellness Center -- formerly known as the HIV Wellness Center -- has focused on holistic therapies and educational programs for people living with HIV/AIDS. The organizers, including PLWHA and practitioners of massage, acupuncture, yoga and Reiki, believed that such alternative therapies are useful in treating many of the symptoms and medication side effects of HIV/AIDS. Today, treatment research continues to support that assumption.

The Wright House Wellness Center got a new name last year, but it continues to provide complementary, no-cost services for relief of pain, stress, and fatigue for PLWHA, as well as emotional support programs and educational activities. What has changed is that those services have also been extended to people living with cancer and hepatitis C.

Another change is the Communities Together Project, begun in 1999 under a federally funded city of Austin grant. Communities Together utilizes peers to influence HIV-infected individuals to get into -- and remain in -- medical care and to improve the quality of their lives. Also, WHWC partnered with the city of Austin for prevention services to begin in January 2003.

While there have been changes, WHWC's mission has basically remained the same: Forming community partnerships to preserve the health of people living with chronic illness, through holistic care, education, and compassion.

To acquaint the community with what it does, the Wright House will hold an open house this Friday, Nov. 8. And kicking off the season, WHWC's popular annual fund-raising gala, Holiday Rhapsody, will be Dec. 14. To learn more about WHWC's programs or either event, please call 467-0088.