HIV therapy and treatment: New research for Indigenous patients

A Saskatchewan social work professor hopes new research can improve the lives of Indigenous people living with HIV in a province with the highest rate of infection.

Over the last decade, Andrew Eaton, a professor at the University of Regina, has been developing a cognitive remediation group therapy (CRGT) program for people living with HIV.

“People living with HIV are like everybody else in that we are all aging and susceptible to age-related conditions. But HIV itself can also cause distinct cognitive impairment,” Eaton said.

CRGT is a form of group therapy that uses stress reduction tactics and brain-training activities to improve memory, processing speed, focus and attention.

Eaton says the program already exists in Toronto hospitals, but he wants to adapt the therapy for Indigenous patients to incorporate smudging, drumming, and traditional ways of healing.

“It’s all the more important that they feel that they’re able to come to a sensitive, safe, non-judgmental space to receive care,” he said.

“Acknowledging a person’s culture and respecting their cultural norms, values and traditions is one major way that we can provide that sensitivity and safeness within healthcare.”

Saskatchewan has the highest rate of new HIV diagnoses in the country at 19 per 100,000 people, according to the most recent government data. The province’s rate is four time higher than the national average.

HIV disproportionately affects the Indigenous population in Saskatchewan. About 60 to 70 per cent of HIV-positive patients self-identify as Indigenous, according to data from AIDS Programs South Saskatchewan (APSS)

“I think it’s less about a particular population being overrepresented and more so about a particular population being underserved,” Eaton said, noting a lack of accessible health care in rural and remote areas and a mistrust among Indigenous groups when it comes to receiving care.

Eaton is consulting First Nations and Metis elders and knowledge keepers, as well as groups like APSS, to develop a culturally sensitive CRGT that will be accessible and accepted by Indigenous patients.

“Anything that’s more targeted, that’s more effective and that is more acceptable will definitely be a step in the right direction,” said Vidya Reddy, an education and research specialist with APSS.

The stigma around HIV is one of the biggest barriers to seeking treatment, according to Tashia Acoose, an APSS peer support coordinator.

“It’s not a death sentence like it used to be,” Acoose said.

“Because of the medications that they have these days, you can live a long life.”

Acoose teaches people how to use at-home test kits for HIV. She sees the relief when tests come back negative.

But she also says the at-home tests provide people with more options to find out their results in a private setting.

“If it came up positive they would be concerned that they would be looked at differently,” she said.

“That doesn’t change the person that they are. It just changes their condition.”

Eaton hopes to have the CRGT program up and running in First Nations communities and rural and remote areas within the next year.