Grant: Planning Grants - Priority Announcement: Infection and Immunity

This request (please also consider for the CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Initiative Funding) is for the Trans PULSE Symposium, that brings together diverse decision makers including, transgender people, researchers, service providers and policy-makers to discuss the quantitative data from the Trans PULSE survey, and to plan 'research to action' strategies. Trans PULSE is a CIHR-funded, community-based research project that responds to problems identified within transgender communities in Ontario regarding access to health and social services and the broader social determinants of health. It aims to understand the multifaceted ways in which social exclusion shape the provision of services for trans people, and adversely impact their health outcomes. The largest study of its kind in Canada to date, it fills a significant gap in knowledge. A major focus is better understanding HIV/AIDS risk factors as well as broader prevention, care and support issues. Trans PULSE data will contribute significantly to the prevention of acquisition and transmission of new infections by providing frameworks by which to better understand HIV vulnerability in these highly marginalized communities. It will inform interventions and standards of care for trans people affected by HIV, and will illuminate access barriers to health care and provide action strategies for overcoming them. This will ultimately improve quality of life and slow disease progression for trans people living with HIV. The Trans PULSE Symposium will provide a unique opportunity for stakeholders to share and understand Trans PULSE data, and to begin to apply knowledge associated with the various social determinants of health in building a sound theory of community-level HIV (and other health-related) vulnerability. Through their participation, this group of stakeholders will constitute the beginnings of a 'knowledge network' who work to create longer-term changes in support of enhancing transgender health outcomes.