Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

In the early 1980s, HIV was found to be the virus that causes AIDS. At that time, people with AIDS would fall ill and often die early. Now we have anti-HIV drugs that are life-saving and can allow people living with HIV (PLWH) to live long and healthy lives. HIV care providers now need to ensure that PLWH have good quality of life and can do the activities they wish to do. The meeting we are proposing will bring together a group of HIV researchers, program staff, and PLWH (community members) that are interested in the wellness of PLWH to brainstorm future "wellness in HIV" projects. We will bring together a team that does research or provides programs that address many areas of wellness in PLWH as well as community members that represent the diverse groups of PLWH in Canada. This includes: men who have sex with men; people who inject drugs; sex workers; people in prisons; Indigenous Peoples; African, Caribbean and Black communities; youth born with HIV; and others. How people view wellness and identify priorities for wellness research, may differ for the different groups of PLWH. Having a discussion between researchers, community agency staff, and community members about wellness will be very important to advance this area of research and improve wellness among PLWH in Canada. This proposal is to have a 2-day meeting to work towards the following goals: 1) To understand the meaning of wellness among PLWH in Canada; 2) To identify the wellness research and activities currently happening for PLWH in Canada and which aspects of wellness need support; 3) To create goals and teams to work on future "wellness in HIV" projects; 4) To come up with research questions and plans for future grant applications; 5) To create a meeting report with recommendations; and 6) To develop a story or article about the meeting to share with the greater community.