The NBWHP's approach to HIV/AIDS from a holistic, culturally informed understanding of health and wellness that centers Black women was not just emblematic of the NBWHP's work around HIV/AIDS the National Black Women's Health Project took similar approaches - in particular the balance between prevention and education of non-disabled community members and resources for disabled people - to mental health, depression and suicide. All of this work is a clear enactment of Black Disability Politics.

How HIV/AIDS Serves as a Case Study for the NBWHP

In editions of Vital Signs published during the HIV/AIDS epidemic the NBWHP published articles written by Black women living with HIV/AIDS, including Black lesbians with HIV/AIDS aimed at building community for Black women with HIV/AIDS.

University of Wisconsin - Madison

The NBWHP in addition to working to prevent HIV/AIDS also worked to actively support Black Women with HIV/AIDS this support took a few different forms:
- Centering the voices of Black women with HIV/AIDS
- Hosting the conference "From Cries and Whispers: Black Women Talking About AIDS"
- Support Groups

The NWBHP's Support for Black Women with HIV/AIDS

Schalk, Sami. Black Disability Politics, New York, USA: Duke University Press, 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478027003

Black Disability Politics

How the NBWHP Centered the Voices of Black Women with HIV/AIDS

From October 17-18, 1988 the NBWHP hosted From Cries and Whispers: Black Women Talking About AIDS, this conference took place in Washington, D.C., and served as a place for Black women, including women living with HIV/AIDS, advocates, caregivers, government representatives, and health and social service providers to work to address the AIDS epidemic. The conference had three panels, one consisted of women with AIDS speaking about their experiences and needs, the second consisted of government representatives and the third had advocacy representatives. The panels were each followed by a small group discussion hosted in the model of the NBWHP's self-help groups. The conference clearly centered on the needs and oppression faced by Black women with HIV/AIDS including the conference report noting the effects from family abandonment to denial of health care and ambulance transportation to job discrimination that can happen to Black women with HIV/AIDS and the conference and report emphasized the need to provide physical, emotional, social and financial support to people with HIV/AIDS and their families.

From Cries and Whispers: Black Women Talking About AIDS

The NBWHP created self-help groups specifically for Black women with HIV/AIDS. NBWHP literature on the creation of these groups notes that Black women with AIDS often desire a sense of sisterhood and often the counselors and service providers who visit them in hospitals and shelters are white people without HIV/AIDS. These groups served as spaces for Black women to form community, share information, and provide hope to each other amongst individuals who shared the embodied experience of being Black women.

The Use of Self-Help Groups For Black Women with HIV/AIDS

The NBWHP also created self-help groups for front line health care workers, such as orderlies, nurse aides and pratical nurses who because of being invalidated in their role in the medical industrial system may allow prejudices and attitudes to influence their interactions with individuals with HIV/AIDS. The NBWHP conducted these groups as a way to improve support for people with HIV.AIDS. Schalk notes it was unclear whether the NBWHP secured funding to create these groups. The NBWHP used information from Black women with HIV/AIDS to educate and support first-line health workers. The NBWHP also recognized that these first-line workers were often working class people.

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