It’s amazing sometimes to see how a community can rally around an great individual who happens to embody many of the great principles so many of us hold dearly today.
Dr. Peter Jepson-Young is a great example of this. Last week the City of Vancouver (and actor Tom Hanks), honored the 20th Anniversary of Dr. Peter, who for the remainder of his adult life, educated thousands of Canadians about the realities of being gay and suffering from HIV/AIDS – at a time when both were stigmatized.
The story stretches back to the late 1980s. At that time, Dr. Peter, a recent graduate of UBC medical school, was diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. When he was no longer able to practice medicine, he educated the public about HIV/AIDS through The Dr. Peter Diaries, a 111-episode weekly series that ran on CBC-TV from 1990 to 1992. Through the Diaries, he shared his experience with the disease and sought to bring a human face to the pandemic at a time when homophobia and broad discrimination surrounding HIV/AIDS were rampant.
The Diaries were so successful that CBC-TV and HBO collaborated to produce a documentary compilation, The Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter, which was nominated for an Academy Award in 1994.
In 1992, Dr. Peter passed away from his illness. Just weeks before his death, however, he established the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation to provide Comfort Care for people living with HIV/AIDS. Today, the Dr. Peter Centre is recognized locally, nationally and internationally for its innovative model of care addressing today’s challenges in HIV/AIDS care.
Despite this work, there is still much to be done to fight against HIV/AIDS in Canada. It is estimated 58,000 people in Canada live with HIV and 30 percent of these people do not know that they have contracted the disease. In BC, several people contract the disease every day. Many of these victims are marginalized people and injection drug users. A large number come from the Downtown Eastside.
As a result, the Dr. Peter Centre now offers a wide spectrum of harm reduction services for individuals living with HIV/AIDS who are actively using substances. These services range from supporting clients who are seeking abstinence-based treatment, methadone management, needle exchange services to supervised injection services by registered nurses.
It’s also created a tidal wave of momentum in both the West End, gay community and in the medical community. These and other communities around the city and country have continued to rally around the Dr. Peter banner and pushed for more effective measures to treat people suffering from drug addiction than the current federal government tact of criminalizing them. As Dr. Peter Foundation Executive Director Maxine Davis pointed out in a recent Globe and Mail editorial, a lot more can be done:
Most of us would not tolerate receiving our health care on the street. Yet, street nurses in Canada’s towns and cities have become necessary because indoor locations have been disallowed by local authorities and, in the case of Insite, Vancouver’s supervised injection site, challenged all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada.
In July, The Lancet called this aversion to true HIV care for people who use drugs “aggressive, state-sponsored hostility.” The leading medical journal called for “enlightened, scientifically driven attitudes and more equitable societal responses.”
In the months before his death, Dr. Peter set up a foundation with a mission to provide care for people living with HIV-AIDS. Today, the Dr. Peter Centre, in Vancouver’s downtown West End neighbourhood, is a quiet icon for what an integrated care model can achieve.
Its this spirit of integrated care that continues to bind thousands of individuals together in a common battle against a ravaging disease. And its Dr. Peter who continues to be the standard on which these forces march forward and who’s vision 20 years ago continues to guide a way for researchers, activists and caregivers today.