Grant: HIV Implementation Science - Component 1

Gay Poz Sex (GPS) is a counselling program for gay men living with HIV that is led by HIV-positive gay men. The program's main goal is to prevent the spread of HIV, as well as to promote good sexual health. GPS has four parts in total: 1) providing information on HIV and other sexually transmitted infections, 2) motivational interviewing counselling, which is a form of counselling that helps change behaviours through questions that lead people to explore and overcome their hesitance to change, 3) the opportunity for participants to learn valuable skills that can improve their sexual health and well-being, and 4) connecting participants to medical care. The goal of this research project is to create an adaptation of GPS program that can be administered to both HIV-negative and HIV-positive gay men, delivered in an individual counselling format. The GPS program will create a team of community members, organizations, agencies, and researchers to run the program in five locations across British Columbia and Ontario. Our team will conduct interviews with community agencies to determine the possibility of offering the GPS program to all men who have sex with men, regardless of HIV status. An evaluation of GPS will be completed and based on these results, the team will create a funding application to implement the program widely across Canada. At the end of the project, using our existing national network of community agencies and clinics serving gay men, the team will work to expand the program to communities in multiple regions across most Canadian provinces.