Meet Dasha

Dasha is a big fan of BHCHP’s HIV Team. She loves her provider, Physician Assistant Carole Hohl, and she’s been getting her health care with us for over 10 years. Beyond the primary care she receives here, which is customized to include treatment and management for HIV and transgender care, Dasha utilizes BHCHP’s pharmacy, dental clinic, Behavioral Health, and Case Management programs.

Dasha is a big fan of BHCHP’s HIV Team. She loves her provider, Physician Assistant Carole Hohl, and she’s been getting her health care with us for over 10 years. Beyond the primary care she receives here, which is customized to include treatment and management for HIV and transgender care, Dasha utilizes BHCHP’s pharmacy, dental clinic, Behavioral Health, and Case Management programs. She attends a weekly support group with others living with HIV, as well as our weekly group for transgender patients – a supportive setting for those who experience a mismatch between their gender identity or gender expression and their biologicial sex. BHCHP’s Transgender Program was established in 2009 after a community needs assessment. Dasha raved about a women’s health fair that she attended here recently during a stay at the Barbara McInnis House, and she’s looking forward to getting dentures.

Life hasn’t been easy for Dasha. As a child, she was sexually abused by family members and later in life she spent time in jail. She’s been homeless on and off for years and struggles with depression and a damaged nerve that makes walking difficult. Yet she’s not defined by these hardships. She’s proud of her Jamaican and Cherokee heritage, has a caring boyfriend of 12 years, loves to cook, and is looking forward to getting housing, for which she is near the top of a waitlist. According to Dasha, “I would be lost without BHCHP. If I didn’t have [BHCHP], I wouldn’t be the Dasha I am.”