Grant: CIHR Fellowship

This proposed postdoctoral research is situated within the DRUM & SASH team grant project. DRUM & SASH builds on the DRUM1 project, a partnership between First Nation communities, people with lived experience of HIV, the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network (CAAN), policy makers, and academics. The DRUM1 team worked with 3 northern Alberta First Nation communities to develop a community-led process of Shared Care Model (SCM) development for HIV and other STBBIs. Building on this, DRUM & SASH provides a structure and supports for Alberta First Nation and Métis communities to collaborate with and support each other as they work to provide improved HIV, HCV and other STBBI prevention and care services within a SCM approach. As a postdoctoral fellow, I will develop and implement a model for Indigenous implementation science (IIS) in collaboration with DRUM & SASH communities and other stakeholders. This model be used to evaluate the DRUM & SASH approach of SCM development. Using this IIS model, I will collaboratively assess the DRUM & SASH processes including the co-learning and community-led approaches to the adaptation and scale up SCM within diverse (different cultures, rural and urban, smaller and larger) participating AB First Nation and Métis communities and the implementation of the SCM initiatives. Overall, this novel postdoctoral research will contribute to the development of innovative Indigenous approaches to implementation science, as well as provide evidence about using community developed SCM to improve access to culturally appropriate health services for STBBI treatment and prevention for Indigenous people on and off reserve. Improving access to culturally appropriate health services for Indigenous people continues to be of the utmost importance as, due to the ongoing effects of colonialism, Indigenous people in Canada continue to be over represented in rates of HIV and other STBBIs.