Research initiative funded in time for National Aboriginal Day
Women account for 48 per cent of Aboriginal people living in
Canada who test positive for HIV, compared to 20 per cent in the
non-Aboriginal population. Yet studies focused on the concerns
of Aboriginal women in the context of HIV infection are scarce.
Postdoctoral fellow Dr. Anita C. Benoit is doing research that
will help to improve HIV services, so that they better target
and support Aboriginal women. “In one of my pilot projects, I’m
working to identify the stressors that Aboriginal women living
with HIV face daily,” says Benoit. “We’re hoping to design a
stress-reducing therapeutic intervention that will allow
Aboriginal women to practice traditional healing approaches in
addition to conventional stress-management approaches.” Benoit
is doing this work in partnership with Aboriginal women,
community groups, researchers and allied researchers. What makes
the study unique from other stress management interventions in
the literature is that it’s