HIV support groups struggle for funding as transmission rates rise in Manitoba
Organizations hope new program will get provincial funding under new government
As rates of HIV transmission grow exponentially across Manitoba, leaders of a newly launched treatment and prevention project hope to secure more funding from the new provincial government.
The Manitoba HIV Program says the outgoing Progressive Conservative government was unwilling to support its new Program to Access Treatment for HIV and Support (PATHS).
The project quietly started up last week in Winnipeg with its first pod, made up of a nurse, a social worker and an outreach worker.
The group visits encampments and other places to meet people living with HIV.
"Within a few days, we've already seen some early success," said Kimberly Templeton, program lead for the Manitoba HIV Program.
The interdisciplinary team provides medication that helps prevent the spread of HIV by lowering the viral load to non-transmissible levels.
But first, they help connect people living with HIV with "wrap-around psychosocial support," said Templeton, such as affordable housing and mental health services.
"That could be as little as bus fare [or] providing them with a sandwich," she said. "It's really about building those relationships."
The program is run in partnership with several community organizations, including Nine Circles Community Health Centre and Ka Ni Kanichihk in Winnipeg and the 7th Street Health Access Centre in Brandon.
"It's looking at individuals holistically, providing the support they need in the longer term to stay on the medications that will help them to live long and live well," Templeton said.
Nine Circles executive director Mike Payne said previous projects aimed at tackling HIV have shown street outreach works.
"It made people feel cared for and respected, and that's something a lot of folks haven't felt in other parts of our health and social service system."
Changing epidemiology
Templeton said the need is dire. While Manitoba used to see fewer than 100 new cases per year, numbers have spiked since 2020, with HIV affecting higher numbers of women, people who are homeless and users of injection drugs.
"Unfortunately, for 2023, we're expecting well over 300 people to be diagnosed," said Templeton, up from 111 new cases in 2018 and 169 in 2021.
"Without any kind of meaningful change or intervention, we expect that trajectory to continue."
The Manitoba HIV Program's most recent report on HIV transmission found that from 2018 to 2021, there was a 52 per cent increase in HIV cases in the province.
The research indicates more women are contracting the virus than elsewhere in Canada, with half the people entering the Manitoba HIV Program being female.
Among those women, 50 per cent self-reported being homeless, and 65 per cent said they use injection drugs.
Seven out of ten participants — of any gender — described themselves as Indigenous.
Culturally informed care
Laverne Gervais with Ka Ni Kanichihk said a sense of disconnection from the health-care system motivated her group to open its Mino Pimatisiwin Sexual Wellness Lodge in June 2022.
While its primary purpose is testing for sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections, it's also a place where people can find healing through Indigenous traditions and community connection.
"A lot of health services aren't accessible for folks because they're not culturally safe, and folks are refusing to access things," said Gervais, who manages the Mino Pimatisiwin program, explaining that many Indigenous people have had negative experiences in clinics.
"You might see some pictures on the wall, but that's not enough to tell somebody that they're welcomed, right?"
The lodge offers a public nurse and drop-in doctors, as well as a team of aunties and kookums (or grandmothers), important figures in Indigenous cultures.
Gervais said her group is helping guide PATHS in offering HIV outreach through an Indigenous lens, and the lodge is ready to welcome people the team might send their way.
"It is really important to have that awareness and to have Indigenous people involved," she said, "because it's our people who are most impacted right now."
Hopes for the future
Nine Circles' Payne said the Stefanson government's reluctance to support PATHS was a setback, but he hopes the new NDP leadership will respond more quickly.
"We have to be available when people are ready and we're not really resourced to do that right now," Payne said.
"That's super frustrating, when we know those early interventions are what we need to start to bend that curve."
Nine Circles is kick-starting the project with federal money, but that funding is only available until March 2024, Payne said.
"It would be heartbreaking to have built this team, start running it and then shut it down," he said.
Templeton and Payne said PATHS is partly inspired by a program in British Columbia called STOP HIV/AIDS, which began with $48 million from that province.
The Manitoba groups have been asking Manitoba for a fraction of that — $2 million — to start PATHS, but the funding didn't come through.
A provincial spokesperson said, given the recent election, it would be difficult to comment on the request.
The spokesperson instead highlighted some of the PCs' other HIV initiatives, such as coverage for drugs that can block HIV if taken soon after exposure, and funding for medication for HIV patients experiencing financial barriers.
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