A veteran advocate for people with AIDS warned a roomful of healthcare professionals that issues of social justice must play a large part in the care and treatment of patients who struggle with the HIV virus.

Riki Jacobs, executive director of the Hyacinth AIDS Foundation in New Brunswick, was one of 52 people from 22 hospitals and long-term care facilities to be honored with Humanism in Healthcare Awards from the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey at a July 30 ceremony in Florham Park.

The workers were presented plaques by Healthcare Foundation chair Lester Z. Lieberman.

"You cannot separate out the social justice aspect of this issue," said Jacobs, who accepted a special Community Humanism in Healthcare Award. "AIDS does not discriminate as to who you are, but what you do. Behavior influences the way many people get diseases — cancer, diabetes, heart disease, among others. But shame is not the prominent issue when you are diagnosed with one of them. However, a diagnosis of AIDS can result in a person's isolation and rejection by those whom they rely on for love and support."

The 11-year-old Healthcare Foundation was created by the MetroWest Jewish community with funds from the sale of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center. For the last 10 of those years, it has paid tribute to the nurses, technicians, drivers, and pharmacists who, foundation executive director Robert Hyfler said, are on "the front line of caring and compassion for those in medical need."

Keynote speaker at the awards ceremony was James Oleske, a pediatric immunologist and infectious disease specialist. Oleske was one of the first physicians in the country to diagnose and treat the AIDS virus in children.

He told the audience that an older generation of doctors had somehow lost sight of their early career goal — "to relieve suffering."

Oleske is medical director of the Circle of Life Children's Center in Newark, which provides palliative end-of-life care to the youngest victims of fatal diseases.

"To provide compassionate care is not just to feel sorry for someone," he told the audience. "If you're not relieving pain, you're not compassionate. Compassion requires action. The people being honored here have done that. They've been the movers who have maintained that vision — that we are here to relieve suffering, whatever our job is. We need to maintain that as we go through the daily chore of going through life."

Citing the words of Mohammed and Maimonides, Oleske said the principle of saving lives is sacrosanct in all religious traditions.

"I am Catholic by upbringing. All the great religions have as a key element how important it is to relieve suffering. So when we work as healthcare professionals, when we recognize our obligations, when we finish our careers and do what we said we wanted to do when we started, we too become a little bit messianic. We can all be a little godlike in our behavior."

Jacobs picked up on the theme in her remarks, lamenting that "there are not many doctors with compassion."

"It is important to protect what we have in place and to be sure that doctors without experience or knowledge take the time to learn," she said. "We have created a healthcare system that has profit as the bottom line. We in this room have the power to change that."