wfn.org | United Methodists offer electronic support group for HIV/AIDS

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Nov. 10, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-28-71B{508}

NOTE: This report is accompanied by a sidebar, UMNS story #509.

By United Methodist News Service

For seven years, an electronic service sponsored by the United Methodist
Board of Global Ministries has allowed people with HIV/AIDS and their
families to share feelings, offer support and exchange information.

"We were about the only show in town when we opened," said the Rev. Nancy
Carter, a consultant with the Board of Global Ministries. "I am impressed
that people are still finding a need for what we offer, even though there
are so many electronic choices now."

Carter has been the system operator of Computerized AIDS Ministries (CAM)
since it was established by the board's Health and Welfare Ministries
Department in June 1993. Paul Busby provides assistance. Last spring, the
format was changed from an old-style electronic bulletin board to a private
listserv.

The reorganized CAM group has about 70 members, predominantly from the
United States, but also from Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, Asia
and Europe. New members learn about the service from friends or through
church networks or the Board of Global Ministries Web site.

One enthusiastic new member is Linda Brown, a health educator for the Ryan
White Title IV program in Columbia, S.C. She said she routinely checks out
different listservs that might be used as resources and considers CAM  "a
wonderful service" that fills an information gap for people living with
HIV/AIDS.

Brown also is impressed with the wide spectrum of people involved with CAM.
Participants include men and women who are HIV positive; parents and foster
parents of children with AIDS; spouses of persons with AIDS; health
professionals and concerned church members.

"Some of the folk who have come to us have been newly diagnosed and thus in
crisis," Carter said. "Other persons on the list, such as long-term
survivors, have been able to assist them."

The spiritual aspect of the service is a drawing card, and members regularly
ask each other for prayers and other kinds of support, she added. Although
CAM does not focus on technical medical information, it does include the
daily prevention news update from the Centers for Disease Control, news from
religious groups about HIV/AIDS ministries and other AIDS-related news.

Brown lauded the fact that CAM offers a spiritual context while remaining
neutral and nonjudgmental toward participants. Many people touched by
HIV/AIDS do not have access to support "that is spiritually motivating for
them," she said. "In other words, they don't have fellowship."

The fellowship at CAM has led to both online and offline friendships, as
well as long-term participation. Richard Cory of Virginia, whose wife and
teen-age son are longtime survivors of HIV/ AIDS, has said that CAM "is
still one of my best sources of emotional and spiritual support."

He considers CAM a "safe haven" where personal attacks and hateful talk is
not tolerated. "Because of the stigma associated with AIDS, many people are
reluctant to discuss their situation even with close friends and family
members," Cory wrote in 1995. "CAM provides a means by which people can
openly share their personal story, concerns, express their feelings and get
support from others, while at the same time maintaining their anonymity."

Carter herself has made some personal connections through CAM. Debbi Hood
Johnson, who joined in 1993 after her husband, B.J., died of AIDS, became a
CAM leader and spent hours exchanging electronic messages with Carter.

Johnson herself was diagnosed with HIV in 1995. But what stunned CAM members
was her unexpected death in a car accident in 1996, about a month after her
42nd birthday. Carter was invited to preach at a memorial service that
another CAM member helped plan. It was apparent at that service, Carter
said, that Johnson "had touched so many people, from different colors and
different classes."

More information about CAM, including how to join the listserv, can be found
at http://gbgm-umc.org/cam.

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United Methodist News Service
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