Dear colleagues,

Below is an invitation to the European civil society meeting in Vilnius on
April 28, Tuesday (10-12 am, Lambda Room, Hotel Reval Lietuva). It takes
place before the European Conference on Clinical and Social Research on AIDS
and Drugs 28-30 April 2009.

Main question for the discussion: what is needed from research in the drugs
and AIDS fields from the perspective of civil society.

The following ideas will be presented from the Eurasian Harm Reduction
Network -- and more ideas are welcome by Monday evening, April 27:

MORE ATTENTION TO RESEARCH IN THE FOLLOWING FIELDS:

-- HCV PREVENTION AMONG INJECTORS. Prevalence of Hep C is extremely high
among IDUs in the region, no effective prevention exists. Actually this is
not only regional, but worldwide problem
HIV risk among stimulants (including home-made stimulants) injectors. This
is a newly emerging and understudied issue in the region)

- STIMULANT USE AND YOUNG INJECTORS (INCLUDING REPLACEMENT THERAPY FOR
STIMULANT DEPENDENT USERS).

- FEMALE DRUG USERS AND HIV (AND OTHER) RISKS - HOW TO ADDRESS THEM. There
are some data on the elevated HIV risk for female drug users (stigma,
policy, biological factors), but the topic is not well explored in the
region

- BEHAVIOURAL CHANGES AMONG IDUs. There are some data that HIV/HCV/OD
prevention interventions, like education of clients of low threshold
programs effectively increases their knowledge about HIV/HCV/OD and risks,
but behavior itself is hardly improved, at least compared with increased
knowledge. Thus the issue relates to the effective transfer of gained
knowledge into the action.

- ECONOMIC ARGUMENTS (IN ADDITION TO EFFECTIVENESS) FOR DRUG TREATMENT AND
IDU INTERVENTIONS. Due to economic crisis we see more and more issues around
harm reduction funding. In the new EU member states, particularly Slovakia,
Lithuania, Hungary there are major difficulties with securing funds for low
threshold services (EHRN will write a separate letter on this); in Russia
future of funding of harm reduction services is unclear and funding
treatment in Russia and Latvia is under threat.

- POLICY VS PRACTICE RESEARCH. To see whether international guidelines and
national documents are translating into practices for better approaches to
drugs and drug use.

- INVESTING MORE INTO SOCIAL RESEARCH (NOT ONLY CLINICAL). The European
Union's funding for research hardly reaches social research and so far was
dominated by clinical research.

- BETTER TRANSLATION OF RESEARCH RESULTS INTO PRACTICE AND POLICY CHANGE.
This is a more general issue around communication and that we are
reinventing wheel with many aspects of harm reduction to convince what
works.

SUGGESTIONS ARE WELCOME!!


Raminta Stuikyte
EHRN | This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it | www.harm-reduction.org
NGO in Special Status with Economic and Social Council of the United Nations
(ECOSOC)


-----------------------

Dear participants of the European Conference on Clinical and Social Research
on AIDS and Drugs 28-30 April 2009, Vilnius,

We are pleased to invite you to a civil society pre-meeting entitled:

COMMUNITY RECOMMENDATIONS FOR RESEARCH

DATE: April 28, Tuesday
TIME: 10.00-12.00
PLACE: Lambda Room, Reval Hotel (conference venue)
LANGUAGES: English, Russian

The panel will present aspects of the mechanisms as to how civil society
influences the European Union and other agendas with regards to research, as
well as present perspective of the Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (EHRN),
the European AIDS Treatment Group (EATG), and HIV Europe regarding what
research should focus on in the future.
Together with participants, the community recommendations for research in
the drugs and HIV fields will be produced and presented at the closing
session of the Conference on April 30, 2009.

Panelists:
Anna Zakowicz, European AIDS Treatment Group (Lithuania/Poland)
Igor Sobolev, Estonian Network of People Living with HIV (Estonia)
Raminta Stuikyte, Eurasian Harm Reduction Network (Lithuania)

Dr Jeffrey V Lazarus, World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe -
moderator

********************************
Дорогие участники 5-ой Европейской конференции <Клинические и социальные
исследования в области ВИЧ-инфекции и наркотиков> в Вильнюсе!

Мы рады Вас пригласить на встречу гражданского общества, которая состоится
на кануне конференции на тему:

РЕКОМЕНДАЦИИ СООБЩЕСТВА В ОБЛАСТИ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ

ДАТА: 28 апреля, вторник
ВРЕМЯ: 10.00-12.00 ч.
МЕСТО: комната Lambda, гостиница Reval (место проведения конференции)
ЯЗЫКИ: английский, русский

Во время панельной дискуссии будут обсуждены механизмы, посредством которых
гражданское общество влияет на политику в области исследований как на уровне
Европейского Союза, так и других структур. Будет представлено видение
Евразийской сети снижения вреда (ЕССВ), Европейской группы по лечению СПИДа
и "ВИЧ Европа" относительно того, на какие вопросы должны ответить будущие
исследования и каким образом их поощрять. Совместными усилиями участники
встречи разработают рекомендации сообщества по поводу исследований в области
наркотиков и ВИЧ-инфекции, которые будут представлены во время итоговой
сессии конференции 30 апреля 2009 г.

Участники панельной группы:
Анна Закович, Европейская группа по лечению СПИДа (Литва / Польша);
Игорь Соболев, Эстонская сеть людей, живущих с ВИЧ (Эстония);
Раминта Штуйките, Евразийская сеть снижения вреда (Литва);

Др. Джеффри Лазарус, Всемирная организация здравоохранения (Европейское
региональное бюро) (Дания) - ведущий




   http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/