HIV case management at Shanti Orange County is about practical navigation: helping you get to appointments, understand benefits, and stay connected to care when life feels overwhelming.
What Case Managers Do
A case manager is your partner for systems, not your physician. Typical support includes:
- Linking you to HIV medical care, dental care, and pharmacy resources
- Helping with Medi-Cal, CalOptima, ADAP, and other benefit applications
- Coordinating housing referrals and paperwork
- Problem-solving transportation, food insecurity, and appointment reminders
- Connecting you to mental health counseling or support groups at Shanti or in the community
Case managers know Orange County's network because they work in it every day. That local knowledge saves time when you are tired, scared, or recovering from a setback.
Who Qualifies
Shanti case management primarily serves people living with HIV/AIDS in Orange County. Intake will confirm program fit and any documentation needs. Immigration status should not stop you from calling. Ask intake how services apply to your situation.
How Case Management Starts
- Contact intake at (949) 452-0888 or [email protected]
- Share your diagnosis status (or concern), immediate needs, and language preference
- Meet your case manager and build a service plan with clear next steps
You do not need a doctor's referral to begin the conversation, though medical records can help once you are enrolled.
Working With Your Medical Team
Shanti does not replace your HIV clinician. Case managers attend to the gaps between appointments: labs you missed, a pharmacy that will not refill, a landlord form due Friday. They communicate with your consent, and you stay in control of what is shared.
If you are newly diagnosed, case management pairs well with our article on next steps after diagnosis and the HIV testing guide for finding clinical care.
Mental Health and Groups
Many clients use case management + counseling together. Emotional health and paperwork stress often arrive at once; integrated teams prevent you from repeating your story five times.
Open groups like Círculo Latino (first Tuesday monthly) are free. The HIV therapy group requires intake and offers clinician-led weekly sessions.
Privacy
Case management records are handled under the same confidentiality standards as other Shanti services. Ask your case manager what disclosures apply if you are employed, insured, or sharing housing.
Take the Next Step
Visit First visit or Contact to reach intake. For broader HIV resources in the county, see Community resources. One call can unlock medical, emotional, and community support. You do not have to assemble it alone.
What Case Managers Connect You To
The work is navigation, and the referral list is concrete:
- Medical and dental care
- Specialty pharmaceutical care
- Housing options
- Benefits counseling, including insurance and long-term financial assistance programs
- Emergency financial assistance
- Nutrition options
The purpose is to identify what you specifically need and build a personal care plan around it, rather than handing over a stack of numbers and wishing you luck.
Why Navigation Is a Job
Anyone who has tried to hold medical care, pharmacy, housing, and benefits together at the same time knows the failure mode. Each system has its own paperwork, its own eligibility window, and its own reason the last office was supposed to handle it. Things fall through the gaps between offices, not inside them.
A case manager's value is holding the whole map at once, and knowing which door actually opens.
Case Management and Counseling Are Different Jobs
Case management removes practical barriers. Counseling addresses what living with the diagnosis is doing to you. They are separate services, and many clients use both.
Shanti Orange County offers mental health counseling alongside case management, and the two coordinate. There is also a clinician-led HIV therapy group that meets weekly, arranged through intake, where the shared diagnosis in the room does work that individual counseling cannot.
If you want the emotional support without the clinical frame, Círculo Latino meets the first Tuesday of each month, 5:30 to 7 pm, entirely in Spanish, free and open.
Privacy
Conversations are confidential and protected. Releases follow confidentiality rules, and you control most disclosures, including what gets shared with your medical team. If there is someone specific you do or do not want informed, say so at intake rather than assuming either way.
Where This Started
Shanti Orange County was founded in 1987, at the height of the HIV crisis, and mounted a formal crisis response in 1993. Nearly four decades later the organization runs four programs and two support groups out of Laguna Hills. That continuity is the reason the referral relationships work: they were not assembled last year.
Getting Started
Email [email protected] or call 949-452-0888, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm PT. The Laguna Hills location is at 23461 South Pointe Dr., Suite 100, with free parking on site. Staff work in English, Spanish, Farsi, and Hindi.
