Grant: Foundation Grant

Illicit drug use remains a major cause of preventable health and social harms in Canada and accounts for significant healthcare costs. These problems persist in large part due to poor access to evidence-based addiction treatment and harm reduction programming. Given the immense preventable suffering resulting among people who use drugs in Canada, there is an urgent need to improve services, polices and outcomes and reduce costs associated with drug use. This program will bring together a multidisciplinary team of scientists and knowledge users who possess expertise in substance use and infectious diseases, as well as in a range of research approaches, including epidemiology, clinical research, social science, policy research and program evaluation. The ultimate goal of this program is to improve health services, policies and outcomes specific to illicit drug use through a thematically linked program that integrates research, knowledge translation and the training of new scientists. The specific objectives of this program of research are: 1. To identify the impact of individual and social-structural factors on access to and integration of evidence-based addiction treatment and harm reduction programs within acute and community healthcare settings; 2. To identify the impact of access to addiction treatment and harm reduction programs on overdose, HIV and HCV risk and treatment outcomes; 3. To describe and evaluate novel harm reduction programs in Canada, with a focus on drug consumption facilities; 4. To provide a platform for knowledge translation and the ongoing training of new scientists studying illicit drug use.