Grant: Catalyst Grant: HIV/AIDS CBR Program - General Stream

Research has shown that people with HIV who are released from prison have difficulty connecting with health and social support services as they return to their communities. Consequently, these individuals are at risk of poor health outcomes following prison release including stopping life-saving anti-HIV treatments, complications of HIV infection, and relapse of substance use. In addition, with poor linkage to HIV care and social support, formerly incarcerated persons with HIV rely on hospital emergency departments for their care. Therefore, it is important that interventions be developed which promote access to these services for when these individuals are returning to the community. Such interventions are more likely to be effective when informed by the experiences of formerly incarcerated persons living with HIV. However, to date, no such studies have been conducted in Canada. Working in partnership with the Prisoners With HIV/AIDS Support Action Network (PASAN) and other AIDS Service Organizations across Ontario, the goals of this project are to: 1) establish a research team of community members, knowledge users and researchers to conduct community- based research intended to optimize health outcomes of formerly incarcerated persons with HIV; 2) identify barriers to post-release linkage to HIV health and support services from the perspective of formerly incarcerated persons with HIV from across Ontario; and 3) host a knowledge translation and exchange seminar to discuss findings with participants, knowledge users and policy makers . This capacity-building study is part of a larger strategy to engage community members in identifying barriers to post-release linkage with HIV health and social support services (Phase I - current proposal), select, implement and pilot interventions to address barriers (Phase II), and evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions for facilitating post-release linkage with HIV health and social support services (Phase III).