Category: Articles | Page 12

Satellite Sites: Providing harm reduction from the homes of people who use drugs

October 13, 2020 • By Liam Michaud, Gillian Kolla and Rhiannon Thomas

The term “satellite sites” is used to refer to informal harm reduction hubs operating out of the homes of people who use drugs. Operating in Toronto for more than 20 years, these sites offer access to sterile drug use supplies outside of more formal settings like health centres. Although many satellite sites offer much more than this – including naloxone and overdose response training, needle disposal and referrals to healthcare services. Satellite programs emerged from the recognition that people who use drugs were already doing this work within their communities, operating informally to meet harm reduction needs and respond to a range of other health needs.

Re-imagining HIV prevention with young adult Black same-gender-loving men

October 7, 2020 • By David Absalom

Current HIV prevention efforts have and continue to fail Black same-gender-loving (SGL)* men. But with meaningful reflection and changes to service delivery, this can change.

Valuing lived experience of substance use in our organizations: Five areas of policy and best practice

September 1, 2020 • By Murray Jose-Boerbridge

Does your organization support the meaningful engagement of individuals with lived experience of substance use? The assumption and our immediate response to this question should be a resounding yes! However, we know that this is often not the case.

Testing for HIV at home: How Ottawa is piloting self-testing

August 12, 2020 • By Alexandra Musten

To end the HIV epidemic in Canada, it is important for people who are HIV-positive to know their status and to be linked to care. To do that, we have to reach people who are not testing now and make the process easier for them.

COVID-19 in prisons: What needs to be done in Ontario

July 27, 2020 • By Claudia Medina, Eveline Allen, Chris McNab and Nicole Alexander

Immediately after Ontario declared the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) as being a public health emergency in mid-March 2020, all visits from family and friends and programming were suspended in prisons in the province.

With little information from the Ministry of the Solicitor General regarding their efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19, the Prisoners’ HIV/AIDS Support Action Network (PASAN) was flooded with phone calls from prisoners concerned about their health and the well-being of their family and friends.

Five ways to sustain the hepatitis C elimination efforts in Canada

July 6, 2020 • By Christopher Hoy

This June, CATIE and the Canadian Network on Hepatitis C (CanHepC) co-hosted a webinar on sustaining the hepatitis C response before and after the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. We invited leaders in the hepatitis C field to explore the challenges that the pandemic has posed for hepatitis C elimination efforts, but also the opportunities that could be leveraged. Here are just five of the ways we can do this: