Guiding Right: Serving Oklahoma communities for nearly 20 years
by Robin Dorner
Editor in Chief
At Guiding Right, Inc. (GRI) in Tulsa and Oklahoma City, every day is STD Awareness Day. With Oklahoma being one of seven states identified by Health and Human Services that has a substantial rural HIV burden, GRI’s services, like other AIDS Services Organizations (ASO’s), are critical for Oklahomans.
“Guiding Right, Inc. is aligned with the US Health and Human Service’s once-in-a-generation opportunity to eliminate new HIV infections in our nation,” said Theodore Noel, GRI executive Director. “The goal is a 75 percent reduction in new HIV infections in five years and at least 90 percent reduction in 10 years.
“As an organization is it our promise to do whatever we can to end the HIV epidemic.”
Noel is also the founder of GRI. “I started Guiding Right, Inc. in August of 1999,” said Noel. “We are in the planning stages to host a luncheon in August to commemorate our 20th Anniversary.”
The organization began in OKC but expanded services to Tulsa in April 2010.
“In Tulsa, it was determined there was a lack of services being offered to specific populations of color, namely African American, Latino, and Native/First Nation populations,” said Education and Clinic Coordinator, Michael Merryman, GRI-Tulsa. “Our clinic has experienced a booming increase in foot traffic within the last three years.”
Merryman said they have made great strides in strengthening ties with local partners, collaborators, and entities to get the word out.
“OKC has a clinical/social services model, whereas Tulsa has a strictly clinical model,” said Merryman. “GRI-OKC offers all the same testing but includes specific methods and programs used to educate targeted populations on prevention techniques (i.e., high-risk youth and those who are living with HIV/AIDS).
“Additionally, GRI-OKC offers a program geared to link patients with life-saving medications called the AccessRX Wellness Program, as well as WIC and a smoking cessation program.”
Some of GRI-Tulsa’s goals are to grow and match the OKC corporate office in offerings. Since GRI opened its doors, they have seen an increase in testing and aftercare need throughout both cities.
Some HIV tests can be completed in one minute. “We have only one HIV test that takes one minute. All other HIV, syphilis and Hep-C rapid tests can take up to 20 minutes, depending on the test. Chlamydia and Gonorrhea tests are urinalyses and require two to three business days to process at the state lab.”
In both OKC and Tulsa, GRI does outreach in varying locations assuring they meet the needs of the community for testing, counseling and education for not only HIV, but all STI’s.
“GRI provides HIV/AIDS, Syphilis, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea, and Hep-C testing and screening at all outreach sites and performs educational presentations and classes at numerous locations throughout the year.”
Noel added, “HIV is no longer the death sentence as it was described at the onsite of the disease. Since the United States very first HIV diagnoses of San Francisco, CA resident Ken Horne in April 1981, tremendous advances have been made in the treatment of HIV.
“Highly Active Antiretroviral Therapy (HAART) is a customized combination of different classes of medications that a physician prescribes based on such factors as the patient’s viral load (how much virus is in the blood), the particular strain of the virus, the CD4+ cell count and other considerations (e.g., disease symptoms).
Noel said a major game-changer occurring in the last ten years is pre-exposure prophylaxis or PrEP.
“It is an HIV prevention strategy where HIV-negative individuals take anti-HIV medications before being exposed to HIV to reduce their risk of becoming infected. The medications work to prevent HIV from establishing infection inside the body,” he said. “PrEP has been shown to reduce the risk of HIV infection through sex for gay and bisexual men, transgender women, and heterosexual men and women, as well as among people who inject drugs.”
GRI-Tulsa is in the same building but occupies a larger office at 5555 S Peoria Ave. Tulsa hours are 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. M-F. Appointments are not necessary but recommended.
For information about GRI-OKC or Tulsa, visit www.guidingright.org.
The Gayly 5/20/2019 1:47 CST