CAN (LET’S) participated in the first National Guiding Circle on HIV and Disability meeting. We were pleased to meet the other participants and began the discussion about how we can work together to move this conversation forward.
In Canada, HIV disproportionately affects those already at risk of poor health outcomes because of sexual orientation, gender, culture, race, and other factors. The national response to HIV, Hep C and Sexually Transmitted Blood Borne Infections (STBBI) is further complicated by inequities in people’s access to quality information and services from qualified health professionals and front-line service providers – information and services both accessible and appropriate to their life situations.
One such health inequity consistently flagged in Realize’s ongoing consultations with the HIV, disability and deaf communities across Canada are people’s experience of persistent ableism in accessing sexual health information, supports and services including those related to HIV, Hep C and other STBBI. It is a problem increasingly acknowledged in the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC’s) engagement with the HIV, Hep C and STBBI sector (Community Action Fund Applicant Guide, 2020), but policymakers, program decision makers, health-care providers and community-based organizations often lack resources and the “know-how” to address it.
In Canada, Realize is uniquely positioned to foster this approach nationally. Guided by the community of people living with HIV and/or disability and/or who are deaf/hard of hearing, Realize aims to enable policymakers, public health and health care professionals, and front-line community-based service providers to build their capacity to achieve these human rights commitments to people living with disabilities and people living with HIV. We need the leadership, buy-in and cooperation of key allies among all stakeholders in the HIV and disability communities to achieve this goal.