Session Description

Background: HIV disproportionately affects people who use drugs. In the United States, transmission of HIV from injection drug use accounts for 7% of new diagnoses, despite approximately 3% of the population injecting drugs. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is a safe and effective medication to prevent HIV.

Objective: Significant challenges to implementation create barriers to the usage of PrEP among people who inject drugs, contributing to PrEP underutilization. This presentation will explore the current barriers to PrEP implementation among people who inject drugs. Using an implementation science lens, this talk will synthesize individual, cultural, and policy level barriers. Additionally, this talk will explore opportunities to improve PrEP facilitation.

Key Insights: Barriers to PrEP usage includes individual factors such as lack of awareness of HIV prevention medications and risk factors associated with HIV transmission. Intersectional stigma among persons who use drugs and other identities also serve as a barrier to PrEP use. Structural barriers such as access to healthcare and preventive services or safe housing prevent engagement in HIV prevention. These findings highlight multi-level barriers and areas for focused intervention.

Implications: Addressing these barriers align with federal Ending the HIV Epidemic goals seeking to reduce HIV infections and advancing health equity. Expanding PrEP access for people who use drugs will require tailored implementation strategies accounting for structural and social contexts.

Learning Objectives:

Identify multi-level barriers to PrEP implementation among people who inject drugs, including structural, organizational, provider, and individual factors.
Describe how current PrEP delivery models may be misaligned with the needs and lived experiences of people who inject drugs.
Discuss strategies to adapt PrEP delivery to low-threshold, harm reduction–oriented environments.

Presenter

Lindsay Miller, PhD, MA, is a trained clinical mental health counselor and public health researcher with expertise in harm reduction and implementation science. She holds a master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and has clinical experience working with people who use drugs in recovery-oriented settings. Her research focuses on identifying structural and contextual barriers to the implementation and uptake of harm reduction and HIV prevention interventions. Using mixed-methods and implementation science approaches, she examines how evidence-based practices can be effectively translated into real-world settings to improve access, equity, and community-informed care.

Questions?

Please contact Dr. Natalie Ricciutti at nricciut@charlotte.edu or 704-687-8960 if you have questions regarding the program.

Please contact Dr. Jordan Z. Boyd at jboyd44@charlotte.edu if you have questions regarding registration.