Around the time the pandemic was heating up, Crystal McKee noticed something alarming at the clinic at Allies for Health + Wellbeing.
“I noticed there were African American young males who were testing positive,” said McKee, PrEP navigator for Allies. “We had two clients a week, two months in a row, in the age bracket 18 to 34. We’d get them into care, but I could only do but so much because they needed to find their safe space, their people.”
Though many people believe that HIV is a thing of the past, the disease is still being spread, and young people are getting diagnosed with HIV. According to data from the Allegheny County Health Department, between 2014 and 2023, most new cases of HIV were among 25- 34-year-olds.
“It was a lot to see because I could be their mom, and some of them, they looked at me like I was their mom, because a lot of parents are not supportive,” McKee said. “What do they do now? Where can they go? I wanted to do more. I didn’t know how yet, or even if it was possible.”
But she didn’t let that stop her. Instead, she immediately set about to create that safe space for them.
“I put pen to paper — ‘OK, what kind of group is this going to be?’ It must be peer-led, for example, and open to everyone living with HIV.
And that’s how Allies’ Helping Hands support group came to be. The group meets monthly, and about eight to 10 people attend regularly.
“It is important for me for them to make friendships,” McKee said, about why Helping Hands being peer-led is crucial. “I am not living with HIV. I can help you on the medical side and bring you all together, but there are some conversations they may not be comfortable having with me. Seeing them asking each other for help, it’s nice.”
Watching friendships form that are positive and uplifting is an amazing feeling for McKee. She notes this group is one of the few places that can happen for many living with HIV.
“There’s AA, there are all different types of self-help groups, but where is the group for individuals who really, really need that peer support? Because no one who contracted HIV asked for it,” she said. “They were all misled. That’s a different type of pain and experience because their trust was broken. That is common and everybody in the group has experienced that.”
The group allows them to share how that makes them feel, and what they did to move on from being stuck there.
“Because that’s a lot,” McKee said. “Yes, there’s meds, you can live a long happy life, but you still have a diagnosis of HIV, and that’s not changing.”
Recently, she was touched to see a young man, who she calls a sweetheart, forge a bond that is helping him grow.
“He doesn’t know how to stand up for himself, and another member is helping him,” McKee said. “For an older individual to guide him, and he calls her his best friend — that is something.”
The meetings open with the participants breaking bread with each other, a check-in to see if everyone is taking their meds, then they set to planning out their activities.
But the group members want to do more than share their experiences with each other – they want to extend helping hands to others. They have decided to start a collection drive to hand out items to unhoused people who are also living with HIV.
“We are going to partner with Second Ave Commons to distribute our bags — toiletries,” McKee said. “The point for me, for the title, is we can always be a helping hand to someone. Even though your situation is not perfect, there is always someone doing worse than you.”
Helping Hands support group meets monthly and is facilitated by Crystal McKee, PrEP navigator at Allies. For more information or to sign up, contact Crystal at 412-523-2079.