5-5-5 Zone – We won’t be left behind! at AIDS 2024 conference: Call for Proposals

The European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) together with AIDS Action Europe (AAE) and Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network (C-EHRN) are issuing this Call for Participation in “5-5-5 – We won’t be left behind!”, a networking zone in the Global Village at the 25th International AIDS Conference (22 July – 26 July 2024) in Munich, Germany.

Please carefully read the application details before submitting your application. Click here to submit your application: https://forms.office.com/e/bL7xzEMVvq

Application deadline 23 May 2024, 23:59 CET. 

Unfortunately, we are not able to provide financial support for presenters or participants. Organisers must find their own funding for travel to Munich, Germany and all costs associated with participation in AIDS 2024. For more information about the conference visit: www.aids2024.org.

Entry to the Global Village is free and open to the public. It does not require the payment of a conference registration fee.

If you have any questions, please contact Chiara Longhi (chiara.longhi@eatg.org).

 

Objectives

The 5-5-5 – We won’t be left behind! zone will examine gaps and solutions to achieve the 95% targets, and how to reach the remaining 5% with a focus on the WHO European region (partners beyond the region are welcome to apply). There will be one theme per day with inspirational talks, presentations, and recaps on key learnings.

The objectives are:

  1. To foster and strengthen cross-sectional and cross-country collaborations by providing a space for mutual-learning and networking together means for them.
  2. To strengthen the inclusivity and participatory nature of HIV related organisations by consulting communities on what meaningful engagement.
  3. To strengthen and sharpen advocacy initiatives, by providing a space to discuss communities’ advocacy priorities, challenges, and ways to work.

The zone will provide space for community organisations to organise sessions around 5 themes. The overarching themes will be to address stigma and discrimination, improve health outcomes of inadequately served populations and social justice.

Thematic days:

  1. Mobility and HIV (21 July).
  2. Sexuality and sex positive approaches (22 July).
  3. Well-being, quality of life and mental health (23 July).
  4. Substance use and harm reduction (24 July).
  5. Blind spots in the HIV response (25 July).

Who can apply?

We are calling for participation from grassroots and national NGOs, community-based organisatios, networks, researchers, institutions, civil society organisations, human rights organisations, advocacy associations for people living with HIV and other social justice organisations, as well as leaders in the field of HIV from around the WHO European region to join us in advancing the above objectives. Partners beyond the region are welcome to apply.

In our networking zone, we are particularly looking for applications from people living with HIV and other co-infections, trans and gender-diverse people, migrants and people on who move, women, people who use drugs and people in prisons and closed settings.

Activities

We invite you to apply to host an activity related to one the thematic days (Mobility and HIV; Sexuality and sex positive approaches; Well-being, quality of life and mental health; Substance use and harm reduction; Blind spots in the HIV response) including, but not limited to, the following types:

  1. Posters, presentations and discussions
  2. Demonstrations of innovative advocacy or equity initiatives
  3. Display of art projects
  4. Presentations of new research findings and evidence
  5. Interactive skills-building sessions and workshops
  6. Film screenings and digital storytelling
  7. Stories from community representatives
  8. Presentation of policy papers and community resources
  9. Roundtable discussions with key stakeholders in the field of HIV, viral hepatitis, and STIs
  10. Facilitated networking events

Recording – Roundup Webinar | Civil Society Monitoring of Harm Reduction in Europe

 

The video is the recording of the webinar organised to celebrate the core publications for the C-EHRN Civil Society-led Monitoring of Harm Reduction in Europe that took place on the 7th of March.

The event brought together four volumes of the 2023 Data Report:


Moderator: Rafaela Rigoni (C-EHRN)

Speakers:
Iga Jeziorska (C-EHRN) – Essential Harm Reduction Services
Tuukka Tammi (THL) – Eliminating Hepatitis C in Europe
Daan van der Gouwe (Trimbos) – New Drug Trends
Guy Jones (TEDI) – Drug Checking Observations and European Drug Checking Trends via TEDI

 
Following a new format, Correlation – European Harm Reduction Network’s Civil Society-led Monitoring of Harm Reduction in Europe 2023 Data Report is launched in 6 volumes: Hepatitis C Care, Essential Harm Reduction Services, New Drug Trends, Mental Health of Harm Reduction Staff, TEDI Reports and City Reports (Warsaw, Bălţi, Esch-sur-Alzette, London, Amsterdam). The Executive Summary can be accessed here.

SEMID-EU: Migration and access to (Harm Reduction) Services

Several risk factors expose migrants in Europe to high-risk drug use. These include traumatic experiences, disengagement with society, unemployment and poverty. Services and municipalities throughout the European Union are faced with the urgent challenge to address these migrants’ needs.

A better understanding of the needs of vulnerable migrants who use drugs could improve local responses throughout Europe. In the SEMID-EU project, coordinated by Mainline, seven partners across Europe worked to improve the (harm reduction) services access for migrants. This project focuses on filling knowledge and practice gaps in drug use and migration in Europe, aiming to improve the wellbeing of vulnerable migrants who use drugs by improving knowledge and understanding among policymakers and practitioners and strengthening capacities of healthcare and support services working with these groups.

C-EHRN created several resources for this project, including a Policy Brief and several Fact Sheets, which you can download below.
Find out more about the other activities and results of the project here.

Expert & Member Meeting 2023

In December, Budapest gave place to C-EHRN’s Expert & Member Meeting, with more than 130 professionals gathering to discuss the key activities of the network!

To find out more about the event and C-EHRN’s key activities, watch the inspiring video by the Rights Reporter Foundation, and look at the summary of the event below.

On Monday the 4th, our focal points discussed the civil society monitoring of harm reduction in Europe process, ways to use the C-EHRN Monitoring data for advocacy purposes and getting familiar with a new data collection and visualisation tool for the C-EHRN monitoring activities. In the meantime, the partners of the Drug-Prep Project had insightful discussions on foresight research and other project activities.

 

A press conference also took place, introducing drug consumption rooms, drug checking in Europe and the example of Portugal’s health-based drug policy approach, sharing the message that “not only the richest countries in the world can implement efficient drug policies based on decriminalisation” (Marta Pinto, University of Porto). As a result, the conference gained coverage in RTL, one of Hungary’s most popular commercial TVs.

At the end of the day, some meeting participants visited Válaszút Misszió Drogkonzultációs Iroda, learning about their services and the Hungarian context.

Tuesday began with C-EHRN’s director, Katrin Schiffer, opening the official programme for all participants of the event, also introducing C-EHRN’s new visual identity which we launched with the event! During the plenary sessions, we discussed various topics including drug policy and harm reduction in Hungary, civil society monitoring and data collection, and some of the network’s main activities, including research on harm reduction in prison and harm reduction and gender.

Throughout the afternoon’s parallel sessions, we also talked about infectious diseases in community-based settings in the context of the BOOST project, while a migration workshop took place through the SEMID-EU project, and those interested could find out about the application of foresight research in the context of the drugs field (Drug-Prep project). In the following sessions, the civil society involvement case studies conducted in 4 European countries were discussed, while we also spoke about drug consumption rooms and mental health.

Wednesday’s parallel sessions gave space for an engaging conversation about C-EHRN’s strategy for 2024-2028, while drug checking and the state of harm reduction in five European cities (Amsterdam, Bălţi, London, Esch-sur-Alzette and Warsaw) were also discussed.

The Semid-EU plenary delved into the needs and (harm reduction) service access of marginalised migrants who use drugs in the EU, after which we reflected on the outcomes of the time spent together at the member & expert meeting.

To capture the event, we bring you a collection of images below.

Insights from HepHIV2023 Conference: Addressing Stigma, Testing, and Integration in HIV and Hepatitis Services

The HepHIV2023 conference, held in Madrid, Spain, from 13th to 15th November, convened a diverse array of stakeholders committed to advancing the fight against HIV, viral hepatitis and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The event was organized by EuroTEST, and our Senior Policy Officer, Roberto Pérez Gayo, also participated in its organising committee. The conference spotlighted pivotal themes in the realm of infectious diseases, with a focus on integrated testing, technological advancements, and equitable service delivery.

Rafaela Rigoni, C-EHRN’s Scientific Officer, offers key takeaways from the conference, emphasizing critical issues surrounding HIV, and highlighting the conference’s focus on testing, migration, and stigma.

Stigma emerged as a central point of discussion, drawing attention to the multifaceted dimensions impacting individuals living with HIV (PLHIV) and at-risk communities. The targets for 2025 established by UNAIDS to ensure that less than 10% of these groups would be subjected to stigma and discrimination spurred collaborative efforts to develop monitoring mechanisms. Notably, the collaboration between the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG) and AIDS Action Europe led to the creation of an instrument based on the HIV Stigma Index to measure stigma.

Insights in a recently published report using the HIV stigma survey showed that despite participants generally rating their overall quality of life as satisfactory, there is a prevalent connection between stigma and depression. This critical correlation between stigma and mental health, particularly depression, emphasises the need for enhanced mental health services tailored to the unique needs of the population living with HIV.

Moreover, the survey shed light on the alarming prevalence of self-stigma, indicating that individuals harboured negative perceptions about themselves, along with instances of stigma from family and friends. Notably, healthcare settings emerged as hotspots for heightened stigma. Those reporting lower life quality consistently reported more profound experiences of stigma, highlighting the pressing need for targeted interventions to address and mitigate these challenges. The need to understand the experiences of different key populations and research the intersectionality around stigma was highlighted.

The conference didn’t solely focus on HIV; the first attempts to develop a monitoring instrument to measure HCV-related stigma are also underway by ECDC, and C-EHRN was invited to be part of an expert group with an advisory role, fulfilled by our Senior Scientific Officer.

 

More about HepHIV

The conference brings together stakeholders from all levels of the health system, from community organisations to health care providers and policymakers to present and discuss new approaches for testing and linkage to care for HIV, viral hepatitis, sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and tuberculosis (TB), highlighting programmatic/ implementation issues and adaptation of testing services in response to emerging public health issues.  Frontline workers constituted the majority of participants, highlighting the practical implications of the discussions for those directly involved in service delivery.

In summary, the conference illuminated the complexities surrounding stigma, emphasized the critical intersections between mental health and stigma, and underscored the importance of tailored interventions. Moreover, it highlighted the imperative need for integrated testing approaches and the adaptation of services to address emerging public health challenges. 

SEMID-EU’s Findings on Migration, Homelessness and Drug Use in Amsterdam

On the 9th of November, a meeting organised by two SEMID-EU project partners, C-EHRN and Mainline, took place in Villa Buitenlust, Amsterdam with relevant local actors in the field of migration, homelessness and drug use. This gathering sought to address the multifaceted challenges encountered by migrants who use drugs and experience homelessness throughout Europe, with a specific focus on Amsterdam. The event aimed to share the findings and materials of the SEMID-EU project and prompt discussion on the situation in Amsterdam.

SEMID-EU is a project specifically designed to fill gaps in knowledge and practice on drug use in migrant populations. By gaining a better understanding of the needs of migrants who use drugs in Europe, it aims to improve policies and responses that affect these groups to increase their access to high-quality healthcare, drug treatment, harm reduction and (re)integration services. The focus of SEMID-EU has been on marginalised migrants, for whom institutional, structural, social and personal barriers stand in the way of the fulfilment of their basic human rights.

The key results at an Amsterdam level underlined the importance of collaboration between relevant stakeholders to support services for migrants who use drugs. In Amsterdam, homelessness is a big problem intra-European and Spanish-speaking migrants who use drugs are dealing with. Research conducted in SEMID-EU reveals the significant advantages individuals experience through drug consumption rooms, shelters and support services aimed at fulfilling their fundamental needs. However, the capacity of these services is sometimes too limited. For example, the occasional shelter does help but does not tackle the uncertainty and stress of homelessness. Without a safe and stable environment to sleep, long-term substance dependency aid (when requested) is impossible. Migrants who use drugs struggle to access (social) housing, employment, and healthcare services, and the need for insurance to access healthcare that depends on formal residence is an especially big issue.

Among the group of Maghreb Arabic-speaking refugees, there is a reported lack of support services available to help with procedures of migration, laws, drugs and drug dependency services, financial support and mental health services. However, the most prominent support services needed are mental health services, necessary to cope with the trauma that originated in their countries of origin and at refugee camps and are too often not offered.

Low-threshold (harm reduction) services serve as crucial connections for migrants who use drugs, acting as a gateway to other essential healthcare and support services. Nevertheless, these services need greater support from funding bodies due to their frequent capacity constraints. Within the discussion, there was a clear emphasis on the necessity for national cohesion in the Netherlands to adopt human-rights-centred responses to homelessness, ensuring adequate housing solutions for individuals in need.

Plenty of resources that can support the expansion of availability and quality of services for migrants who use drugs are going to be made available soon on both Mainline’s and Correlation’s websites. Of these, the following are already available:

SEMID-EU is coordinated by Mainline, an organisation based in Amsterdam whose mission is to improve the health and social position of people who use drugs, without primarily aiming to reduce drug use and out of respect for the freedom of choice and possibilities of the individual.

Other partners involved in the SEMID-EU project are Ghent University, ISGlobal – Barcelona Institute of Global Health, Positive Voice, Fixpunkt e.V., Gaïa Paris and C-EHRN.

Improving Access to Health Services for Migrants Who Use Drugs: Insights from EU Experts

Access to drug dependency services and healthcare among migrants who use drugs in the European Union remains a topic with limited available information. However, EU experts agree on several risk factors influencing the non-medical use of medicines and illicit substances, as well as shortcomings in service accessibility.

To address these challenges and promote better access to healthcare services for migrants who use drugs, a Delphi study engaged 57 European experts from various work fields across 24 countries. As a result of the study, 15 actionable recommendations were formulated. The study’s findings and recommendations are now available in the recently published research paper titled “Drug use and access to drug dependency services for vulnerable migrants who use drugs in the European Union: Consensus statements and recommendations from civil society experts in Europe.”

The study emphasizes the significance of European-level collaboration and cross-sectoral cooperation in delivering improved and more accessible healthcare services to migrants who use drugs. It also suggests that the establishment of an EU expert committee on migration and health, as well as the development of EU guidelines on migrant and drug services, can contribute to enhancing the quality and availability of these services. These initiatives aim to ensure that service improvements are based on reliable data.

Furthermore, the paper advocates for the inclusion of migrants in the development of health services and highlights the importance of ensuring easy accessibility to services for undocumented migrants. Additionally, the study emphasizes the need for psychological screening to be incorporated into these services.

The research was conducted as part of the Services for vulnerable MIgrants who use Drugs in the EU (SEMID-EU) project, which received funding from the European Union’s Justice Programme—Drugs Policy Initiatives. The project’s objective is to gain a deeper understanding of the needs of migrants who use drugs and enhance local responses based on this knowledge.

To access the research paper, click here.

SEMID-EU | Partners Meeting

The partners of the SEMID-EU (Services for Vulnerable Migrants Who Use Drugs in the EU) project met in Paris on the 25th-26th of May. As part of the project, a Community-Based Participatory Research Program was carried out, the outcomes and lessons of which were discussed, and some localized advocacy points were outlined.

Amongst other issues, migration being extremely politicised in EU countries was underlined, which provokes distrust, thus challenging the work of initiatives seeking to better the circumstances of migrants. On the other hand, community support and connection to harm reduction services seem to be protective factors for people, supporting them to navigate an unknown system and serving as an entry into care and more formalised support.

The SEMID-EU project intends to fill knowledge and practice gaps regarding migration and drug use in the EU to facilitate better responses to local challenges. For more information about the project, click here.

Interview – Drug Consumption Rooms in European Cities

Roberto Pérez Gayo, our policy officer, has been asked to talk about drug consumption rooms in European cities in the Urban Trends section of Politico Europe’s Global Policy Lab.

Interested in the conversation? You can find it here.

EU Civil Society Forum on HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis and Tuberculosis presents its Joint Statement at the EU Health Policy Platform Annual Meeting

The EU Health Policy Platform Annual Meeting took place on the 19th of April. The event was a hybrid conference with nearly 300 participants in Luxembourg and online. The first part of the event was dedicated to showcasing the Joint Statements prepared by the 2022 Thematic Networks, which culminate several months of exchange and research, each in a particular area of public health.

During the event, the Coordination Team of CSF on HIV/AIDS, VH & TB presented its Joint Statement, which explores outstanding challenges and good practices specific to dealing with these conditions. Special attention was brought to the importance of nurturing collaboration among stakeholders to ensure continuity of prevention, treatment and care and better quality of life for all people living with or most affected by HIV/AIDS, viral hepatitis, tuberculosis (especially drug-resistant) and sexually transmitted infections, including an adapted response for displaced and mobile people and other migrant populations. The statement also highlights how HIV, viral hepatitis (VH) and STIs are increasingly becoming concentrated in key and vulnerable populations and provides recommendations on how to overcome the stigma and discrimination against these key populations that are often at the intersection of multiple axes of marginalisation.

Additionally, three other Joint statements were presented:

  • “Organisations across sectors call for stronger action against racism and discrimination to achieve health equity”, by DisQo Anti-Discrimination & Health Equity – European Public Health Alliance, advocates for the improvement of public health by proactively eliminating institutional, structural, and interpersonal racism and discrimination that impact physical and mental health inequalities. The Joint Statement outlines five key priorities for constructively, collaboratively, and respectfully addressing the issue.
  • “Mental Health in All Policies”, by Mental Health Europe, emphasises the impacts of public policies on mental health determinants, strives to reduce mental health inequities, aims to highlight the opportunities offered by mental health to different policy areas, and reinforces the accountability of policymakers for mental health impacts.
  • Lastly, the Brunel Centre and Health Action International presented “Navigating Health Inequalities in the EU through Artificial Intelligence”, which considers how we may leverage AI-driven technologies to improve healthcare and wider (e.g. productivity) outcomes and reduce inequalities in the European Union (EU) whilst also ensuring that such inequalities are not augmented or magnified or even that new iterations of inequalities are not [re]created.

You can find the statements and presentations here.