CIRA Talk: "Resilience in HIV and Aging Research in Response to Crises: Lessons from Ukraine"

In this talk, our team will give an overview of our current HIV/AIDS research in Ukraine, paying special attention to how we've been adapting to ongoing crises (first COVID-19 pandemic, and now the war started by Russia) in terms of both our research questions/foci and of methods we could use. We will share some findings on how older people with HIV (OPWH, defined as ≥50 years) cope during the war with daily life challenges and HIV and non-HIV care; and how HIV and addiction clinicians have adapted their care provision processes to start creating a 'New Normal' in response to the crisis.

Our team members will comment on challenges to conducting research during crises and strategies we have employed for overcoming these challenges and opportunities we unexpectedly uncovered. We will reflect on our efforts to maintain productivity and communication with research collaborators throughout these global crises, and discuss the key lessons we have learned. Finally, we will share some considerations in developing and conducting HIV/AIDS-related research in humanitarian contexts (e.g., funding, methodological, ethical, logistical) that may be helpful to other teams working under conditions of extreme duress.