Category: How To | CATIE Blog

Five key recommendations to advance the sexual and reproductive health and rights of women living with HIV

February 13, 2023 • By Zoe Osborne, Valerie Nicholson and Angela Kaida

Love Positive Women is an international movement that invites us to celebrate women living with HIV around the globe. This annual event is an opportunity to engage in acts of caring for the women living with HIV in our community, both in private acts and in pushing for systems change. In Canada, women make up approximately 25% of all people living with HIV. Despite this, women’s voices, priorities, and distinct needs have been underrepresented in the national conversation about HIV. Particularly in the space of sexual and reproductive health and rights, there are few initiatives that focus specifically on women...

Spotting and the Good Samaritan Act: Implications and considerations

August 12, 2022 • By Melissa Perri and Nat Kaminski

“Good Samaritan” laws aim to protect people who witness, act on or experience a substance-use-related overdose from being arrested or criminally charged. This type of legislation has been implemented across Canada and the United States as a response to the increase in fatal drug poisonings, but it varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Reaching out to immigrant communities during the pandemic and beyond

July 5, 2022 • By Fozia Tanveer

For more than a decade, the program’s two-pronged community development and social marketing strategy had demonstrated success in reaching these diverse communities across Ontario. However, in early 2020, we were forced back to the drawing board.

Navigating the sixth wave of COVID-19 as a person living with HIV

May 19, 2022 • By Shari Margolese and Cecilia Costiniuk, MD, MSc, FRCPC

As a person living with HIV, I receive regular calls and messages from my peers with COVID-19 questions: “When I visit my family, should I wear a mask?” “Should I get a fourth shot, and when?” “How can mask mandates be lifted when we are in a sixth wave?”.

Parenting, substance use and the child welfare system: Sharing lived experiences and providing support

April 26, 2022 • By Cassandra Smith

Cassandra Smith is Black CAP’s harm reduction specialist. CATIE recently spoke with Cassandra about how her lived experiences as a community member and parent have informed her harm reduction work, and how harm reduction programs and services can meet the needs of racialized parents who use substances.

Rapid tests for the diagnosis of syphilis and HIV: A potential game changer for Canada

February 2, 2022 • By Ameeta Singh and Jennifer Gratrix

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection that is on the rise in Canada, with many areas experiencing outbreaks. In 2019, the Alberta Chief Medical Officer of Health declared an outbreak after observing a rise in cases not seen since 1948!