Prevention

Although HIV and AIDS have had a relatively low public profile recently, there is still no cure and people continue to become infected with HIV. Prevention continues to be a very important part of our work at AIDS Thunder Bay, carried out mainly through our Injection Drug Use Outreach (IDUO) program. Unfortunately our Smart Choices Outreach Project and Evaluation (SCOPE) has ended.

• IDU outreach involves the use of peers to provide information and access to harm reduction techniques to the injection drug using community. Stuart Boland, who coordinates the program, works closely with Superior Points (needle exchange and harm reduction program) at the Thunder Bay District Health Unit and the Concurrent Disorders Program at the Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital.

In order to complement peer outreach, we use social marketing tools to generate more mindfulness in the larger community. Over the past number of months, transit shelters, bathroom advertising, and billboards (shown below) have put forth messages designed to raise awareness of AIDS Thunder Bay as well as the need for continued attention to prevention. Our HIV testing campaign ran over the summer of 2005 and still appears in bathrooms and on posters.

Please feel free to contact us about questions, concerns, or suggestions you might have about prevention.

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