Ongoing Research
The REACH CBR Collaborative Centre in HIV/AIDS
Team Lead: Dr. Susan Kirkland (Dalhousie University)
Status: Ongoing to 2022
Status: Ongoing to 2022
The REACH CBR Collaborative Centre in HIV/AIDS began in July of 2012, and received funding in 2017 for the "CBR Collaborative 2.0" for another a five-year term. The goal of the Centre is to build and promote HIV-related community based research (“CBR”) in Canada. We are a national network consisting of HIV/AIDS researchers, people living with HIV, community based organizations, clinicians, and policy-makers. We are structured around seven Regional Core Teams that stretch from coast to coast. Each Core Team is led by a community leader and an academic leader, and decides on its own regional research priorities. A National CBR Leadership Committee identifies opportunities for cross-regional initiatives, encourages Core Teams to collaborate to advance shared goals, and ensures that all Core Teams receive appropriate and targeted support.
REACH 2.0
Team Lead: Dr. Susan Kirkland (Dalhousie University)
Status: Ongoing to 2019
Status: Ongoing to 2019
Since May 2014 (and building on a previous CIHR centre grant, 2009-14), REACH 2.0 provides infrastructure to create and support interprofessional research, policy, practice and community teams that: (1) Identify existing efficacious interventions; (2) Support front-line organizations and service providers in participatory evaluation; (3) Identify gaps in the implementation, scale-up and sustainability of efficacious interventions; (4) Actively engage in rigorously applied program science; (5)Train and build capacity in community-based and intervention research, participatory evaluation and program science; and (6) Develop research and program science partnerships.
Additional Harm Reduction Services in Two Sites in Nova Scotia: An Exploration of Advantages, Community Interest & Methods of
Delivery
Principal Investigators: Dr. Lois Jackson (Dalhousie University) and Diane Bailey (Mainline Needle Exchange)
Status: Ongoing to 2018
Status: Ongoing to 2018
The purpose of this one-year study is to explore what people who use drugs (PWUD) and key local stakeholders think about additional harm reduction services in their communities of Halifax and Sydney. For the purpose of this study, additional harm reduction services include: no cost naloxone programs; peer-staffed community detox/withdrawal management programs; supervised consumption rooms; peer-run navigation services; and no cost needle syringe distribution and disposal programs within existing local services. For the Sydney site, it also includes a community-based, low-threshold opioid substitution program.The project is being conducted in two main phases, the first involving the administration of questionnaires for PWUD through Mainline Needle Exchange in Halifax (100 participants) and Sharp Advice Needle Exchange in Sydney (50 participants) sites. The second phase will be launched in early 2018, and will involve a small number of interviews with various local key stakeholders.
A New APPROACH to HIV Testing: Adaptation of POCT for Pharmacies to Reduce risk and Optimize Access to Care in HIV
Principal Investigator: Dr. Deborah Kelley (Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Status: Ongoing to 2017
Status: Ongoing to 2017
An estimated 21% of Canadians with HIV are unaware of their infection. There is a need to improve access to HIV testing to detect infections earlier so individuals can access care early and take steps to prevent transmission to others. Barriers to HIV testing include limited access or reluctance to go to traditional testing sites (doctor's offices and sexually transmitted infection clinics), and the lengthy wait time to receive test results from standard laboratory-based HIV testing (usually 1-2 weeks). These deterrents are particularly significant for those at highest risk of infection, who may be socially marginalized or stigmatized. In rural areas, HIV testing may only be available through doctor's offices and hospitals, yet many Canadians do not have access to a family physician. Pharmacists are among the most trusted and accessible healthcare providers, and are well positioned to improve access to HIV testing. Point of care tests for HIV are easy to administer and results are available within minutes, making them ideal for use in the community pharmacy setting. Point of care testing (POCT) by pharmacists can ensure individuals receive their test results, and facilitate timely linkages to care and treatment. This adaptation grant will look at factors influencing the acceptability and feasibility of pharmacist-provided rapid POCT for HIV in two Canadian provinces, including pharmacies in both urban and rural areas. The effectiveness of pharmacist-delivered POCT will be considered from a variety of perspectives including people living with or at risk of HIV, as well as pharmacists as the service providers.
Frailty in People Aging With Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection
Principal Investigator: Dr. Susan Kirkland (Dalhousie University)
Status: Ongoing
Status: Ongoing
The increasing life spans of people infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) reflect enormous treatment successes and present new challenges related to aging. Even with suppression of viral loads and immune reconstitution, HIV-positive individuals exhibit excess vulnerability to multiple health problems that are not AIDS-defining. With the accumulation of multiple health problems, it is likely that many people aging with treated HIV infection may be identified as frail. Studies of frailty in people with HIV are currently limited but suggest that frailty might be feasible and useful as an integrative marker of multisystem vulnerability, for organizing ca`re and for comprehensively measuring the impact of illness and treatment on overall health status. This review explains how frailty has been conceptualized and measured in the general population, critically reviews emerging data on frailty in people with HIV infection, and explores how the concept of frailty might inform HIV research and care.
