Humans of NHC: Meet Michael Wilk!

Mike Wilk (he/him) is an Infectious Diseases Program Manager at HealthRight 360 in San Francisco. Mike has been doing HIV/AIDS outreach work for many years and is a pillar of the San Francisco community. He has supervised NHC’s AmeriCorps volunteers’ quality improvement and patient outreach projects and we are so grateful for all that we have learned from him!

What does a typical day in the life of your job look like?

Initially, when I started working for the clinics, I was always on site, doing case management, but, more recently I have been focusing on administrative management, with some face to face client interactions. A lot of the work I do is about our deliverables, reporting, and supervision. Most of my day is spent working on spreadsheets or doing outreach calls.

Because we are an FQHC (federally qualified health center), we receive Ryan White funding. This consists of federal funding that is dispersed by HRSA (Healthcare Resources Services Administration) to provide HIV care for people that are uninsured or underinsured. Because HIV is such a chronic disease, we want to make sure that all persons have access to competent HIV care. We get two streams of funding for Ryan White, one is for HIV services, the other is for HOPWA (Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS). HealthRight 360 has a supportive housing program called the Coleridge Facility. Anyone that has successfully completed programs for substance use disorders or behavioral health can apply to be in this program where they can stay up to 14 months. HealthRight 360 uses a reporting system called ARIES (AIDS Regional Information Evaluation System) to reconcile deliverables for HRSA/Ryan White funding and enroll clients and enable sharing of personal health information with the state of California.

There are minimum requirements that we have to fulfill, namely 2 HIV visits per year and 1 set of HIV labs. We do a lot of outreach and try to make sure that we are compliant with those requirements.

We also have a program called ADAP (AIDS Drug Assistance Program) that helps people with access to HIV medications if they are not eligible for Medi-Cal. We have a very limited case load, somewhere between 14 and 18 clients. We are an open enrollment site for ADAP, meaning that anyone can come in and enroll in the service, even if they are not a client of HealthRight 360. I also do a lot of case management for clients with HIV and Hep C. This involves following accepted best practices to ensure clients come in, get their labs done, and are adherent to their medications.

Q: What initially interested you about your career path and profession?

M: I was retired for 25 years. I started volunteering for a gay men’s sexual health clinic called Magnet, which is now called Strut and part of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. At the time, it was part of UCSF. I started volunteering there because I thought, well I have all this free time and I am HIV positive, so I wanted to work with people who are also HIV positive and give back to the community. I started volunteering and they were like, “Wow! You’re really good with people. We would like to train you.” They helped me get certified to do phlebotomy, to become an HIV rapid test counselor, and to screen for STIs. I maintained that position for about 3 years until funding ran out and I got laid off. I was unemployed for 2 or 3 years and then I got a part time position with an organization called Positive Directions Equals Change in the Bayview. I did HIV testing and counseling for them but unfortunately their grant was cancelled for non compliance. It was a SAMHSA (Substance Abuse Mental Health Services Administration) funded grant, which is a recipient of money from HHS (US Department of Health and Human Services). My resume was forwarded to the person who wrote the grant, which was picked up and renewed by HealthRight 360. I received a call from the person in charge of the grant requesting an interview.

That is how I started at HealthRIGHT. That’s where my career radically changed. I became involved with behavioral health, working for an outpatient substance use disorder program out of Bayview. I ended up running the SAMHSA program because the program manager at the time left and I was asked to take over. I had to create curricula and run substance use groups. I started having a caseload and became certified as a drug and alcohol treatment counselor while administering an HIV testing program at the same time. The program lasted for about 4 years, and we were able to meet all of our goals. When the program ended, I transitioned to Tenderloin Health Services and helped to start the current program that I am in now which is the HealthRIGHT 360 Integrated Prevention Program.

What/who inspires you? Why?

What inspires me is being able to help people who aren’t able to help themselves. I have been in the position of not knowing what to do about my health or how to navigate it. There were people that went out of their way to support me so I feel like that’s a debt I would like to repay and give back to the people who don’t have that ability. I’m lucky. I’m better off than a lot of other people are. I don’t mean just financially, I mean that my health is okay and I am employed and other things like that.

The other thing that really inspired me was our medical director at Tenderloin Health Services, Dr. Andy Desruisseau. He was an amazing person: caring, charismatic, and extremely knowledgeable. He was an infectious disease specialist. Andy was an important person at HealthRight because he was always on the cutting edge of medical practices. He inspired us because he was warm and friendly and so caring about his clients. He was so well known that he spoke in Congressional committees and he would go up before different government agencies here in San Francisco. He really inspired me and a lot of other people to do better and to help people. Sadly, he is no longer with us, but he was a big inspiration for me.

What was one of the more challenging/discouraging parts of your career path?

I went to school to become a sculptor. 6 more months and I would have gotten a degree. I didn’t need to work because I had retired and I thought, well, I don’t really need it for a job so I just quit my schooling. When I started working in this business, I realized that a lot of people had college degrees that helped them to achieve good positions. That was discouraging for me and I had a lot of shame around it. I don’t anymore.

Other parts I found challenging were the requirements to become a drug and alcohol treatment counselor, 2 years of schooling, training, and final exams. Doing the continuing education units (CEUs) every year was also a lot. If I had known my life would turn out this way, I would have completed college and done it earlier because I think that gives you more stability and self reliance. That’s probably the only thing I would have changed about my life.

What advice do you have for people just beginning their career journeys?

What the AmeriCorps volunteers are doing is important because you get an idea of what it would be like to do a certain thing and know if it is a good fit or not. While I was working on my art career, I started a cabinet shop that made furniture for 5 years. Initially I enjoyed it, but I came to hate it because it became an onerous task as clients were always pushing me to do it as cheaply as possible. I gave up arguing with people because otherwise I would not get the jobs. I would agree to make the furniture inexpensively, but then a year later the doors on something would warp and it just became a nightmare.

It is good to get experience in something you like so you know that it isn’t going to burn you out. Focusing on all of the available options for your interest and thinking it through is important: What if I had to work 12 hours a day at this? How would that be after a year? Would I burn out? Would I still love it? Would I still feel like that's something I want to do for the rest of my life? I know that's hard because when you are young you’re idealistic. When I was in my 20s, I was like, “How am I going to change the world?” Now I realize in my older age that it's really hard because people are really set in their ways. That’s why I think it’s important to experience as much as you can before you settle into a permanent career. I think that certain organizations are really great because they may offer you the ability to apply for positions that you are interested in and qualified for within the same organization. I think it is good to have the ability to do those things.