HIV & Hepatitis C Prevention Research Team
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Under the direction of Dr. Lynne Leonard, the University of Ottawa’s HIV and Hepatitis C Prevention Research Team (HHPRT) conducts community-based research examining the health and disease prevention needs of people who use drugs in Ottawa and Ontario. The HHPRT undertakes local and province-wide socio-surveillance research among people who inject drugs, concentrating on the social construction of HIV- and HCV-related risk. Most recently, the team has focused on the distinct experiences of people who smoke crack, employing both qualitative and quantitative methods to more fully understand, from the perspectives of the users themselves, the individual and structural factors contributing to the unacceptably high levels of HIV and HCV infection among women and men in Ottawa who use drugs. Dr. Leonard’s continuous involvement on regional, provincial and national programming and policy-making advisory bodies ensures that the research undertaken by the HHPRT both emerges from community-identified need and that it contributes directly to decision-making priorities for the purpose of policy and program reformulation.