Grant: Team Grant: HIV Implementation Science - Component 2

What is DRUM? With funding from CIHR, we are building upon ten years of work with the Aboriginal Community Resilience to HIV/AIDS (ACRA) project through continued partnership with three Northern Alberta First Nation communities. DRUM is culturally grounded, community-led and based on identified strengths. We are working together to develop, test and evaluate shared-care models (SCM) for HIV, Hep C and other STBBI prevention and care services on-reserve. Our team includes members from each community (including community research associates (CRAs)), Elders, people with lived experience, policy makers, clinicians/health care providers, FNIHB regional representation, and researchers from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network. There is a strong two-way capacity-strengthening component built into the project. Through our work together on DRUM, we have learned there is promise in our approach. What is DRUM 2? DRUM 2 will build on the work of DRUM. Our team will continue our work with communities of different Indigenous cultures and in different regions of Alberta, supporting each other as we improve HIV, Hep C and other STBBI prevention and care services within a SCM development process for First Nation and Métis communities. With guidance from an Elders Council, we will study how programs are developed, adapted, implemented, and whether they meet their implementation goals. The CRAs from DRUM 1 will act as mentors/resources for the DRUM 2 new communities who participate in the DRUM process to develop and implement their own SCM. Importantly, DRUM 2 also provides the opportunity to learn by comparing different community approaches for shared care, including communities who use the DRUM process, and other communities in other regions of Canada who have developed their own shared care models. We will develop online resources for First Nation and Métis communities to share what we learn about developing and assessing STBBI SCMs.