Below you'll find a list of all posts that have been categorized as “Blog”
At Shift, we don’t spend a whole lot of time talking about human trafficking.
In 2014, we provided ongoing support and case management to 125 registered program clients; only a handful of these individuals had experienced trafficking. In the 8 year history of Shift, people experiencing human trafficking and other forms of sexual exploitation have remained a small minority of the individuals we support.
When Bill C-36 (The Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act) was first proposed the Shift Line phone was ringing off the hook. And honestly, it hasn’t stopped ringing. Sex workers are confused, upset, frustrated, and in general unsure how this new law is going to affect their lives. Many of the people who call us care about following the law and avoiding criminal charges, but these laws are so vague that they just can’t figure out what they can and cannot do.
New direct-acting Antivirals are changing chronic Hepatitis C treatment for the better. Hepatitis C (HCV) treatment has gone from a once exhausting 48 weeks duration to as a little as 8 weeks with a 95% sustained virologic response (SVR). SVR is defined as a viremia (the presence of viruses in the blood) 24 weeks after completion of antiviral therapy for chronic HCV infection (. In analyses of SVR durability, the incidence of late relapse is extremely low, less than 1%.
As I began my search for a practicum I knew that that finding a harm reduction program was top priority. In a sea of abstinence based programs in Calgary, I was ecstatic to find the Shift program, a pro-choice, client centered, program for adults who have ever been involved in sex work.
A number of years ago I was chatting with clients at a Friday lunch and the topic of cooking skills came up. I was surprised by the number of clients who stated that they didn’t know how to cook and what to cook to stay healthy. Shortly after this the birth of an interactive coffee connections now known as Cooking with Coral was born.
Online dating, youth groups and night clubs are all great places where people can meet and start dating. The African Communities project has made great strides in spreading the HIV message to its community members while most recently joining hands with some African Night clubs in the city.
This year we are so excited that Kenneth Tupper, Ph.D., Dr. Carl Hart and Donald MacPherson will be joining us as plenary speakers and we can’t wait to see who else! The call for abstracts for anyone interested in presenting has gone out and anyone wishing to submit an abstract related to policy, practice or research should do so by February 9, 2015!! The more the better!!
Is a person who does not know their HIV status or who has never been tested pose a higher risk for HIV transmission due to their unknown or assumed HIV negative status than a person on TasP with controlled virus or on PreP and known HIV status? These are some of the questions being raised as a result of these new and emerging technologies.
Hopefully we can evolve enough as a society to see HIV positive dating as one more thing in the long list of things a dater must consider, from “what am I going to wear” all the way to “could they be my knight in shining armor” and your knight just may be someone living with HIV.
The very first time I had to do an HIV Community Link (at that time AIDS Calgary) booth was at a local round dance happening in the urban aboriginal community in Calgary. I was a …
