Countywide

A top public health nursing official for San Diego County has been appointed to head the county’s new Office of AIDS Coordination, a federally funded demonstration program intended to serve people with AIDS and AIDS-related complex (ARC).

Binnie Callender, assistant chief of the public health nursing division of the Department of Health Services, will become the first chief of the office on Oct. 23, according to a statement released Friday by the department director, Dr. J. William Cox.

The office, funded by a $1-million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is expected to identify the needs of, and coordinate services for, the rising number of people in San Diego County diagnosed as having AIDS and ARC.

Among other things, the office is expected to address the inadequacy of social, medical, psychiatric and dental services; the lack of a countywide case-management system, and the absence of a method of tracking needs and services and assessing their cost-effectiveness.

Callender, who has worked for the county since 1985, holds degrees in public health administration and community health nursing education. She played a central role in securing the three-year grant that is funding the new office.