Grant: HIV/AIDS Population Health and Health Services

The proposed CIHR Centre for REACH in HIV/AIDS is a collaborative, national partnership among leading health researchers in Canada in a wide array disciplines from over 20 academic institutions, people living with HIV, front-line service providers, knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) specialists, and federal, provincial and regional policy makers. OUR VISION is to bring together critical practice, research, and policy skills as well as the lived experience of people with HIV to enhance the health of individuals and communities disproportionately affected by HIV. OUR MISSION is to provide the core infrastructure support required to: engage community, policy-makers and researchers in interdisciplinary teams; break down geographical, theoretical, and conceptual barriers; and solve problems in the use, uptake and implementation of research evidence. OUR WORK will strengthen policy, programs and practices, and make a measurable difference in the health and well being of people with HIV and communities most vulnerable to HIV. Using an interdisciplinary approach and working collaboratively at the intersections of social science, population health and health services research, the Centre will use an interdisciplinary approach to focus on three thematic areas: (1) UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEMS AND FACTORS DRIVING THE EPIDEMIC ¿ reaching beyond individual behaviour to explore the impact of broader structural and cultural factors as well as the social determinants of health (i.e., poverty, stigma, discrimination, racism and gender inequality) on risk, resilience, behaviour and access to health services within communities; (2) FIND INNOVATIVE AND PRACTICAL SOLUTIONS ¿ taking an integrated approach to prevention and treatment, developing evidence-based interventions and strategies; and (3) MOVE RESEARCH EVIDENCE INTO ACTION ¿ developing effective KTE strategies, relationships and networks and having a measurable impact on policy and practice.