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Documents: Stategies Report 1999-2002
This is a companion document to the Strategic Plan and a work in progress; this version March 31, 2000

GOAL #3

To foster social environments that maximize the health and well-being of people infected and affected by and vulnerable to HIV/AIDS.

Strategies in bold are priority strategies. The purpose of priority strategies is to focus the efforts of VHACCC over the next three years. The priority strategies are not intended to replace the other strategies. VHACCC will implement the other strategies as time and resources permit.

The following strategies in italics are taken from Appendix A: List of Recommendations in "Injection Drug Use and HIV/AIDS: Legal and Ethical Issues" published by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, 1999.

OBJECTIVE 3.1

To help ensure basic human rights and procedural protections are accorded to people infected and affected
by and vulnerable to HIV/AIDS in the health, social service, education and justice systems

STRATEGIES

SERVICE OUTCOMES

POPULATION HEALTH OUTCOMES
1. Take actions to ensure greater understanding by service systems of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms and its implications for service delivery
  • Service delivery respects Charter rights of the individual
  • Same sex partners receive comparable level of service as different sex partners
  • Increased consumer satisfaction with fairness and respect in community and public service delivery
    • 2. Take actions to eliminate conditions or requirements which limit access to HIV/AIDS related treatment, care and support:
  • Ensure provision of services to drug users is not contingent upon drug users’ agreement to enter drug treatment programs
  • Ensure treatment is not withheld or refused simply because a person with HIV/AIDS is a drug user
  • Drug dependency is a prohibited ground of discrimination
    • 3. Take actions to develop ethical and practice guidelines for service providers in different systems of care involving HIV/AIDS and injection drug use    

    OBJECTIVE 3.2

    To help promote harm reduction for people infected and affected by and vulnerable to HIV/AIDS

     

     

    STRATEGIES

    SERVICE OUTCOMES

    POPULATION HEALTH OUTCOMES
    1. Take actions to have harm reduction principles and practices incorporated into health, social and justice systems:
  • Exclude injection equipment containing trace elements of illegal drugs from the definition of "controlled substance" in the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act
  • Ensure that those operating needle exchange programs are not liable to criminal prosecution under the drug paraphernalia provisions of the Criminal Code
  • Decriminalize possession of small amounts of currently illegal drugs for personal use
  • Remove threat of criminal liability for service providers who wish to provide care, treatment and support without insisting on abstinence by patients who use currently illegal drugs
  • Correctional systems should make sterile injection equipment available in prisons
    		•  
  • Increased public acceptance of people who engage in risk behaviours
  • Increased implementation of harm reduction practices by publicly funded institutions
    • 2. Take actions to promote harm reduction education for service providers:
  • Develop education programs based on harm reduction philosophy
  • Dispel myths about methadone maintenance treatment by making information on methadone programs widely available
  • Hospitals and professional groups to organize educational sessions on drug use for health care professionals
    		•    
    3. Take actions to encourage the Ministry of Health to fund harm reduction practices:
  • Provide funding for test kits for drug users that measure dose and purity of drugs
  • Permit physicians to prescribe opiates and controlled stimulants
  • Ensure needle exchange programs are easily accessible to injection drug users
  • Abandon quota system on exchanged needles
  • Fund study of legal and ethical issues surrounding provision of sterile needles to minors
  • Allow pharmacists to distribute sterile needles
    		•
  • Free provision of male and female condoms
  • Free provision of clean needles
  • Access to safe injection facilities for IDUs
    • 4. Take action to have Ministry of Health undertake, in consultation with drug users and community-based agencies, a review of methadone regulations and rules to ensure that they are in conformity with the care, treatment and support needs of injection drug users
  • Ensure that methadone programs are based on principles of harm reduction, including respect for persons, flexibility of treatment and consistency in treatment

    •  
  • GPs prescribe methadone
  • Substance abuse is treated as an illness or medical condition
    		•  

     

    OBJECTIVE 3.3

    To help aDdress gender inequality and bias experienced by people infected
    and affected by and vulnerable to HIV/AIDS

    STRATEGIES

    SERVICE OUTCOMES

    POPULATION HEALTH OUTCOMES
    1. Take actions to address the unique psychosocial and health needs of women
  • Increased access to voluntary HIV testing and counseling
  • Increased education about HIV transmission risks and prevention strategies
  • Increased access to female controlled methods of birth/STD control
  • Increased availability of gender and transgender-specific HIV/AIDS education, care, treatment and support services
    • 2. Take actions to address the unique psychosocial and health needs of transgendered populations
  • Increased availability of transgender-specific HIV research, education, prevention, treatment, care, support
    • 3. Take actions to increase availability of gender-specific HIV research, education, prevention, treatment, care and support  
    4. Take actions to improve education, treatment, care and support for HIV-positive women from cultural minorities  
    5. Take actions to improve education, treatment, care and support for HIV-positive Aboriginal women  

     

    OBJECTIVE 3.4

    To help address cultural inequality and bias experienced by people infected and affected by and vulnerable to HIV/AIDS

    STRATEGIES

    SERVICE OUTCOMES

    POPULATION HEALTH OUTCOMES
    1. Take actions to address the unique psychosocial and health needs of gay men and men who have sex with men  
  • Increased availability of culturally appropriate HIV/AIDS education, care, treatment and support services
  • Increased access to HIV/AIDS services by target cultural populations
    • 2. Take actions to address the unique psychosocial and health needs of lesbian women  
    3. Take actions to reduce homophobia and biphobia in the health care system  
    4. Take actions to improve access to culturally and linguistically appropriate HIV/AIDS prevention, education, treatment, care and support for target populations  
    5. Take actions to promote the implementation of Red Road: An Aboriginal Strategy for HIV/AIDS in BC  
    6. Take actions to ensure newcomer communities are aware of HIV transmission risks, prevention strategies, and ways to access care  
    7. Take actions to ensure service providers are aware of the need for HIV education, prevention, treatment, care and support in non-English-speaking communities  

     

    Objective 3.5

    To help address social and economic inequality and bias experienced by people infected
    and affected by and vulnerable to HIV/AIDS

    STRATEGIES

    SERVICE OUTCOMES

    POPULATION HEALTH OUTCOMES
    1. Examine the effect of current public policies on the progression of the HIV/AIDS epidemic  
  • Increased sensitivity of HIV/AIDS education, care, treatment and support services to the needs of extremely socially and economically deprived people
    • 2. Work with others to influence the formulation and implementation of healthy public policies
  • Increased social and economic security for target populations and people infected/affected by HIV/AIDS
    • 3. Examine the influence of macroenvironmental factors, such as market forces and population growth, on the social and economic security of target populations and people infected/affected by HIV/AIDS  
    4. Take actions to address the unique psychosocial and health needs of people who have experienced chronic or historic social and economic deprivation