New Victorian legislation will introduce an electronic patient health information sharing system to enable public hospitals and other specified health services to share Victorians’ health information.
Recently, GLaD reserchers Sean Mulcahy, Emily Lenton and Dion Kagan presented a 3-part showcase of research findings from current projects addressing LGBTIQA+ human rights, hepatitis C data justice, and life after hepatitis C cure. Watch a recording of their papers here.
GLaD research lead Kate Seear gave a keynote presentation at the inaugural Australian Stigma Conference hosted by the Australian Injecting & Illicit Drug Users League (AIVL) in Canberra calling for reform to legal, social, policy and cultural dimensions of hepatitis C in order to better to address the health and human rights of people who use drugs.
GLaD program lead Kate Seear and project officer Dion Kagan presented recent findings at The Australian Sociological Association conference earlier this month.
The law has the power to shape public understandings of hepatitis C infection, including how people with the virus understand themselves and their ability to avoid the stigma associated with it. The latest article from our project on the experiences of people treated for hepatitis C engages with the challenges posed by laws and policies devised in a pre-cure world.
To mark World Hepatitis Day in 2022, researchers in the GLaD and DruGS programs at ARCSHS got together with CEO of Hepatitis Australia Carrie Fowlie to share and discuss findings from three recent social research projects on hepatitis C. Listen to the conversation here.
Earlier in 2021, GLaD program researcher Emily Lenton led an article reporting on this work, titled ‘Upscaling HIV and hepatitis C testing in primary healthcare settings: Stigma-sensitive practice’ in the Australian Journal of Public Health.The article was co-authored with Jen Johnson, previously of the BBV Sector Development Program, and Dr Graham Brown. This article focuses on how healthcare settings can support the goal of upscaling HIV and hepatitis C testing in a way that delivers safe and stigma-free testing encounters.
The Royal Commission into Victoria’s Mental Health System delivered its final report in February of this year, and it was tabled in Parliament in March. Among the matters the Commission was appointed to consider was the need to address the stigma associated with mental health, and the need to safeguard human rights.
The Mandatory Disease Testing Act 2021, recently passed through the New South Wales Parliament,establishes a new scheme under which a person can be ordered to provide a blood sample for the testing of blood-borne viruses if, as a result of their deliberate action, their bodily fluid has come into contact with a health, emergency or public sector worker.
GLaD team member Emily Lenton recently presented a paper at the 12th Australasian Viral Hepatitis Conference. Her presentation, titled ‘Hepatitis C testing and gaining informed consent: taking stock and innovating for the future’, was co-authored with the convenor of ARCSHS’ Gender, Law and Drugs program, Associate Professor Kate Seear.
With new Australian drug laws required to comply with human rights frameworks, researchers at the GLaD program are conducting a new study funded by the Australian Research Countil to develop a world-first ‘post–human rights’ framework for drug policy.
In Australia, a new generation of direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) for the treatment of hepatitis C have been rolled out in a globally unique program of