The city’s Health Department recently received notice that its Ryan White funding will be reduced by $2.4 million, prompting unanticipated cuts in a wide range of funded services.

In March, the region expected to receive $22.3 million in Ryan White Part A funding. However, health officials recently received notice that the region will be receiving $19.9 million in funds.

Due to the shortfall, Ryan White funding for six service categories will end effective July 31. Those categories are translation and interpretive services, nutritional services, psychosocial support services, home healthcare, day respite care and rehabilitative care.

Though the categories will lose Ryan White funding, it is possible the city will fund them in the future.

In addition, funding for three categories will end on June 30. Those categories are complementary therapies, client advocacy and buddy/companion services.

Other service categories funded by Ryan White Part A dollars will experience some budget cuts, but will continue to be funded throughout the year.

Ambulatory medical care, drug reimbursement and case management will undergo budget reductions of 4 percent.

Substance-abuse treatment, mental-health therapy, oral health, early intervention and treatment adherence will undergo 6-percent budget reductions.

Transportation, food-bank and home-delivered meals, housing assistance, legal services, care outreach and direct financial assistance will experience 11-percent budget reductions.

In March, about 100 protesters attended a meeting of the Ryan White Planning Council, demanding that psychosocial services be fully funded. They noted that Philadelphia FIGHT, a community-based AIDS health initiative, depended heavily on those funds.

At that meeting, officials indicated that the cuts wouldn’t take place, because they didn’t expect a $2.4-million budget reduction.

However, all $390,000 allocated for psychosocial services must now be eliminated to help make ends meet due to the budget shortfall, officials said.

Mari Ross-Russell, director of the Office of HIV Planning, said a misinterpretation of federal guidelines led local officials to believe a large budget cut could be avoided this year.

“It was a misunderstanding in interpreting new federal guidelines that went into effect March 1,” Ross-Russell told PGN. “We were planning for the best-case scenario and it’s turned out otherwise.”

She said the cuts are particularly hard to absorb because the region experienced a $1.7-million budget cut in 2006.

“The combination of the two cuts to the system and trying to maintain primary medical care and case management is just difficult,” Ross-Russell said, adding that the council “agonized” over how to keep core services and make necessary cuts.

The local Ryan White Planning Council voted to approve the cuts at its June 14 meeting.

Waheedah Shabazz-El, 54, an HIV-positive activist, attended the meeting and said she hoped the community would mobilize.

“We all need to get together, and make sure the needs of everyone are being met,” Shabazz-El said. “I hope we can learn from this and make the necessary improvements.”