Marseille 2007
| Abstract #111 - Expanding harm reduction services in Kazan: Using community centers to improve injecting drug users' (IDUs) access to HIV care and treatment. | ||||
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Session: 6.20: Posters A (Poster) on Monday in Chaired by Authors: Presenting Author: Dr Konstantin Lezhentsev - IHRD, Ukraine |
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| Additional Authors: Dr Larisa Badrieva, Mrs Alexandra Volgina, | ||||
| Aim: The Kazan Harm Reduction project is a site in the Global Fund's Round 3 GLOBUS project, which funds ARV treatment and harm reduction projects. In the last seven years, rates of IDU morbidity, mortality, incarceration, HIV, and TB in Kazan have increased dramatically. There is a pressing need for effective services for IDUs, yet IDUs are often reluctant to access traditional health care services because of concerns, (often based on past experience) that they will be stigmatized or discriminated against, because of myths in the IDU community about the dangers of ARV, and because traditional services do not take IDUs' needs into account. The International Harm Reduction Development Program (IHRD) supports the Kazan Harm Reduction project to improve IDUs' access to ARV and other services. The Kazan Harm Reduction project created a community center that links HIV care and treatment, drug rehabilitation services, and TB/HIV counseling with classic harm reduction activities such as outreach work, needle exchange and literature distribution. The center is a safe space that provides peer counseling, HIV treatment literacy education, on-site VCT, ARV adherence support, and immediate needs such as vein care, social support, hot drinks, and a friendly environment. The center provides links to ARV treatment, drug rehabilitation, and TB/HIV counseling. Ideally, it would also provide or link to opiate substitution treatment, which is illegal in Russia. Since the beginning of the project in March 2006, 400 people have received services from a team of trained outreach workers who provide HIV treatment counseling and education, laboratory testing, and social support. The number of visits to the community center has doubled (compared to November 2005), and the number of IDUs who received on-site VCT has increased to 46 in November 2006, compared to ten in November 2005. The community center has expanded the number of services for IDUs and strengthened the links between harm reduction sites and care and treatment programs. | ||||
| Results / Comments: Integration of patient outreach, ARV treatment counseling and ARV adherence support through a community center expands access to HIV testing and treatment for vulnerable groups. A trained team of outreach workers able to provide ARV treatment literacy counseling, adherence support, and peer counseling are critical for increasing HIV treatment access and adherence among IDUs. | ||||
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