CIRA Talk: "Multilevel Intervention Approaches to Improve Access to Comprehensive HIV Prevention and Treatment Services for People Who Inject Drugs"

Join this virtual CIRA Talk for a research presentation followed by a discussion and a Q&A session with audience.

Presentation abstract:

Amidst increasing opioid and polysubstance use across the United States, HIV transmission among people who inject drugs (PWID) is increasing for the first time in decades, impacting diverse rural, suburban, and urban jurisdictions including those with long-standing access to harm reduction services. PWID face persistent stigma and multilevel barriers to accessing healthcare services including comprehensive HIV prevention and treatment services. Novel intervention approaches are needed to improve access to HIV testing and subsequent linkage to antiretroviral treatment and prevention medications including pre-exposure prophylaxis. This talk will describe individual, interpersonal, and organizational-level intervention approaches being tested in partnership with syringe service programs and explore additional potential ways to improve comprehensive HIV prevention and treatment services for PWID in community settings.

Speaker: Angela R. Bazzi, PhD, MPH, University of California, San Diego

Angela R. Bazzi, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Professor in UC San Diego's Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health where she directs the Research Program on Mental Health and Substance Use. She is a prevention scientist focused on reducing infectious disease transmission in diverse populations of people who use and inject drugs. Her research leverages in-depth community engagement and mixed methods approaches to develop and test interventions and implementation strategies to improve access to evidence-based HIV prevention and treatment services, vaccines, and substance use disorder treatment in community settings including syringe service programs. She also teaches graduate coursework on substance use and population health and serves as an Associate Editor at Addiction Science & Clinical Practice and Editorial Board Member at Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Moderator: E. Jennifer Edelman, MD, MHS, Yale School of Medicine, Yale School of Public Health, CIRA