Social Service Lobbyist Interview

Social Service Lobbyist Interview

Monique Cone, Alison Cope, Cynthia Lukas, and Jennifer Weigle

BSHS/442

April 7, 2011

Mary Beth Bova

Social Service Lobbyist Interview

The purpose of this paper is to summarize an interview with a social service lobbyist. The interview described below focuses on the role of the lobbyist as a social advocate, talks about how their positions affect social policy changes, and discusses how dollars for human services are acquired utilizing their role. In addition, professional questions and answers are discussed, which concern the interviewee's personal view as their role of a policy changer as well as what she envisions as the future for this career.

A Social Advocate and Lobbyist for HIV/AIDS Funding

I conducted an interview this week with Mrs. Willis who is not only a financial evaluator for a program that provides medical insurance to low-income individuals living with HIV/AIDS under the Ryan White Care Act, she is also a lobbyist for funding for prescription medications; otherwise known as HAART for people living with this disease.

English: This photo of Ryan White was taken by me ...

President Obama signs the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Trea...

Laura Bush stands by President George W. Bush as h...

I asked Mrs. Willis about her position working for the Duval County Health Department. Her job is to evaluate recipients financially to determine if they quality for insurance under the Ryan White Care Act. This insurance pays for doctor's visits and medical services. To qualify for this assistance recipients must be within certain income limits depending on their family's size.

We discussed her position at length noting the challenges and limitations of her position. She discussed the challenges as the fact that she can get qualified individuals this medical coverage but is unable to guarantee that they receive their prescription medications if applicable because that is another program entirely known as the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP).

ADAP is a...