Rosehedge provides high quality, cost effective, compassionate health care and residential services to persons living with HIV/AIDS and other chronic/terminal illnesses.  Through providing home-like environments, affecting policy and establishing community networks, we promote dignity, foster independence and respond to the changing needs of individuals and their loved ones.

We pride ourselves on being recognized as national leaders in the fight against this pandemic.  As Washington State’s longest established provider of housing and health care services for persons living with HIV/AIDS, Rosehedge offers innovative alternatives within King County’s social service system.  From providing Enhanced Assisted Living services to seeking collaborative management efforts with other service providers, Rosehedge recognizes that together we are all essential parts of the answer to this most difficult problem.

A Brief History of Rosehedge

In 1986, the AIDS epidemic was raging and health care professionals in King County realized that the existing medical facilities would be unable to cope with the increased number of patients.  The AIDS Case Management and Residential Services Work Group decided to create a small, temporary program to fill a gap in care services for persons with HIV/AIDS until a larger skilled nursing facility could be built.

Community Home Health Care (CHHC) came forward and volunteered to take on the project.  CHHC trained staff, set up a subsidiary corporation to operate the program and tackled the innumerable problems of licensing and Medicaid reimbursement. 

The new project opened its doors for operation in a six-bedroom house on June 26, 1988.  For the first few months of existence the program had no name.  Finally, after viewing the long row of rose bushes that the owner wanted planted, the staff decided to name the program Rosehedge.

In those early days we cared for people in the last days of their lives.  Before effective medications were developed, patients diagnosed with HIV/AIDS had a very short lifespan. 

With demand for Rosehedge’s services increasing rapidly, the program moved to two adjacent North Seattle homes in 1991.

When a 35-bed skilled nursing facility for people with HIV/AIDS opened in 1992, the mission of Rosehedge changed.  Housing coordinators and HIV/AIDS case managers identified residential care for persons with HIV/AIDS dementia and dual diagnoses of HIV/AIDS and mental illness/chronic substance abuse as the highest priority in developing new health care and housing resources.  Based on the data collected, Rosehedge decided to offer an Assisted Living Program for persons living with HIV/AIDS who could not live independently, but did not require 24-hour licensed nursing care.

In 1993, Rosehedge was approached by the University Unitarian Church about managing their six-bed group home, the Mark DeWolfe House.  Because of soaring demand for our services, Rosehedge agreed that an expansion of services was needed.  In 1995, after a six month, $300,000 renovation, the Mark DeWolfe House opened as an integral part of Rosehedge’s Assisted Living Program.

When effective medications for HIV/AIDS became available in the mid-1990’s, the face of HIV/AIDS changed.  Patients lived longer, healthier lives.  As the death rate dropped. the disease ceased to be a major concern of the public in the United States.  Yet a significant number of patients fell through the cracks, having difficulty finding care, getting or staying on the medication, and coping with their other conditions.  Rosehedge offers a safe harbor for those who can’t manage alone. 

Since 1988, Rosehedge has grown from an idea to a model of compassionate, cost-effective HIV/AIDS care known internationally.  Rosehedge has been remarkable not just for what has been accomplished, but also for the mobilizing force it has provided to the HIV/AIDS care continuum in Seattle.  Rosehedge will continue to be a leader in HIV/AIDS care as the pandemic progresses. 

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