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

Opiate-related overdoses have increased dramatically across Canada, and the impact of overdose morbidity and mortality is a pressing public health concern. Using a mixed-methods, community-based approach, we will examine the hypothesis that people who inject drugs' histories of experiencing overdose, witnessing overdose or losing members of their social networks to overdose lead to experiences of grief, loss and psychological distress. This may lead to an increase in risk behaviours, including ones that place people who inject drugs at risk for HIV and HCV transmission, and future overdose. We will use this baseline research to inform the adaptation of bereavement and multiple loss models developed by the AIDS Bereavement and Resiliency Program of Ontario for building individual and community capacity to respond to grief and loss. Working with the AIDS Bereavement and Resiliency Program of Ontario and our community partners, including peers who are people who inject drugs, we will develop an intervention framework adapted to the multiple loss realities of the current opioid crisis among people who inject drugs, that focuses on developing coping and sustained resiliency strategies and mitigating potential HIV risk behaviours.