Maitri Hospice
24-hour care to people living with AIDS

 

Maitri is a beneficiary of the Academy of Friends 2008 Academy Awards Night Gala, a glamorous event that benefits a select group of HIV/AIDS direct care and prevention education agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area. To date, Academy of Friends has raised over $6.5 million and has benefited more than 60 Bay Area agencies.

Since 1987, Maitri has been providing hospice and 24-hour care to men and women living with AIDS. The two types of care offered at Maitri are hospice care and short term medical stabilization.

"Maitri," pronounced "MY-tree," is a Sanskrit word that means "compassionate friendship." In this 15-bed facility, skilled professionals and dedicated volunteers offer nursing and personal care as well as emotional and spiritual resources to help meet the special needs associated with HIV-related illness. This non-profit program in San Francisco is focused especially on those who might otherwise be without adequate resources or care

Maitri is one of San Francisco’s most respected and valued resources in providing care to people severely debilitated by AIDS. Their current home on Duboce Avenue opened in 1997 after ten years as a residential hospice on Hartford Street. Maitri is licensed as a RCFCI (Residential Care Facility for the Chronically Ill), and offers an innovative, multi-focal program designed to meet the changing needs of people living with AIDS in a dignified and caring manner.

Maitri came into existence in 1987, when the Zen teacher Issan Dorsey of the Hartford Street Zen Center took in a homeless student dying of AIDS. Located in the heart of San Francisco’s Castro district, Maitri soon grew to become a model eight-bed hospice, a place of solace in a community ravaged by AIDS. As the dynamics of the pandemic changed – new drugs had helped reduce mortality but increased the number of patients living with severe debilitations – Maitri responded flexibly by doubling its capacity and extending care to non-hospice patients. maitrisf.org