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Sunday, December 10, 1995     Page: 5

HAZLETON — The first area support group for AIDS sufferers is slated to
meet at 1 p.m. Monday.
   
The group is being coordinated by the Rev. Frank Homet of St. Gabriel’s
Roman Catholic Church, and Heather Baker, a social worker with Hospice Saint
John-Hazleton, to assist people with AIDS and those diagnosed as HIV-positive.
    Homet and Baker decided to start the group after a need was identified by
area social service agencies. It will be referred to as Positive About Life.
   
Those with AIDS “were falling through the cracks because there was no
support here,” Baker said. “People are very private in this area about any
type of illness, even cancer.”
   
Baker said she knows five people with AIDS in the Hazleton area. The city’s
population is about 25,000. No figures about the number of those afflicted
were available at the city Health Department.
   
The 1994 Health profile of Luzerne County by the state Center for Health
Statistics and Research reports that 5.3 people per 100,000 population had
AIDS in Luzerne County in the years 1990 through 1992.
   
The county’s population is about 330,000.
   
“As members of the AIDS Coalition of Greater Hazleton, Father Homet and I
felt it imperative to help meet the needs of the community,” Baker said.
   
She said the group is designed to address the common issues and concerns of
AIDS sufferers and HIV-positive individuals, including their emotional,
physical, spiritual and psychological needs.
   
She stressed that the group will not provide medical therapy.
   
“It will provide confidential, cohesive support they so desperately need.
We’ll try it and see what the responses will be. Hospitals can treat the
disease but not the person,” Baker said.
   
The support group’s membership will be confidential. For more information
about location of meetings and participation, call Hospice Saint John at
459-6778. cq