SPACE is pleased to present Nadia O'Brien for Social Science Week.
The HIV-epidemic in Canada has greatly shifted over the last three decades since the first cases of HIV/AIDS were diagnosed. Women now account for over half of those infected with HIV globally, and represent nearly a quarter of people living with HIV in Canada. Medical advances in the treatment of HIV have significantly increased life expectancy and simplified drug therapies, transforming HIV into a manageable, chronic disease. Given these shifts in HIV treatments and populations affected, care services for women with HIV must be reimagined to meet the needs of women across their life course. Drawing on five years of research in partnership with women living with HIV in Canada, this talk will highlight some of the questions and glitches women with HIV, their care providers, and their communities are currently navigating. Issues of concern include: how women with HIV may reclaim a healthy sexuality despite their HIV status and current criminalization laws; what supports are required to enable women to conceive and deliver HIV-negative children; how health services must adapt to meet women’s comprehensive health care needs into menopause and beyond; and finally, what challenges to HIV prevention and care remain, despite decades of progress.
Image provided by the Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS)
Nadia O’Brien is a doctoral candidate within the department of Family Medicine at McGill University, working with Dr. Alexandra de Pokomandy and Dr. Neil Andersson.
Her research is conducted with the Canadian HIV Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Cohort Study (CHIWOS), where she aims to improve access to comprehensive (HIV & women’s health) care for women living with HIV in Canada.
Nadia is a graduate of the Masters of Public Health (MPH) from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, where she worked with sex worker collectives in India, and of Anthropology (BA) from the University of Toronto, where she explored Faith-Based Organizations' responses to HIV/AIDS in Namibia.
She is also a native Montrealer and Dawson graduate. She credits Dawson for introducing her to Anthropology, shaping her skills for higher education through the Reflections program, and sparking a long-term love of indoor rock-climbing.
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