Surging ahead in community-based research in HIV/AIDS: Building on our collective knowledge to reduce harms and understand the impact of addiction on people at risk or living with HIV/AIDS in Atlantic Canada

The Planning and Dissemination Event will convey what we know about HIV/AIDS research studies related to harm reduction, mental health and additions that have been done in Atlantic Canada. The idea for this event came about as we began setting priorities for the Atlantic Core Team of the CIHR CBR Collaborative: A program of REACH (the CIHR Centre for Research Evidence Into Action for Community Health in HIV/AIDS). A key objective of the CBR Collaborative Centre is to build local and regional research capacity and seek funding for projects that are seen as regional priorities. In Atlantic Canada, our core team is comprised of people living with HIV, community-based researchers (from community groups and universities), policy makers and students. Together we hope to move research evidence into community and government action. To start this, we propose an event to build on work already done in the areas of harm reduction, mental health and addictions. We hope this will lead to an increase in the use of knowledge by those who provide services in the community and to an increase in research with impact in order to make a difference in the lives of people living with HIV/AIDS. The event will highlight the findings from three nationally funded research studies, and two program evaluations. It will take place over two days: on day one we will present the findings from completed projects; on day two we will work as a group to develop a policy brief, and think of future research needs in order to address the gaps in research that are identified from this meeting and to consider strategies to inform research, policy and practice.