377P
A METHOD FOR INVOLVING MARGINALIZED COMMUNITIES IN HEALTH RESEARCH
T Ishida, T Kerr, M Tyndall
BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Vancouver, British Columbia
Background: Vancouver's downtown eastside (DTES) is Canada's poorest urban neighborhood, and is the site of HIV, Hepatitis C and overdose epidemics related to injection drug use. In 2002, the Community Health and Safety Evaluation (CHASE) Project was established to evaluate health care programs, and to monitor health trends in the DTES.
Objectives: There is a lack of literature describing methods of training and involving active or former illicit drug users in community-based research. The objective of this work is to describe the roles of peer researchers within a large community-based cohort study, and to outline the strategies used to recruit, train and integrate these individuals into a peer research team.
Methods: Twelve DTES residents were recruited and trained as peer researchers to work with the CHASE team. Eleven were active or former drug users. The peers were recruited from a local drug user organization and from other peer driven and/or ethnic-specific community organizations. The peer researchers were engaged in a training process that occurred in short sessions over several days. Training objectives were: (1) familiarize the peers with the project, and research design; (2) discuss the value of research; (3) examine ethical issues; and (4) foster skill development in interviewing skills and survey administration. Participant recruitment began in June 2003.
Results: Over 3500 individuals have been enrolled into the CHASE cohort through face-to-face interviews conducted by the peer researchers. Capacity-building and low threshold models of employment facilitated the integration of the peer researchers with the CHASE team. However, challenges included communication, relapse management and negotiating roles among researchers, health authorities and community members.
Conclusions: Participatory research approaches that includes active and former drug users may offer opportunities for researchers and health authorities to more effectively study and serve vulnerable populations.