Our projects

Attitudes and barriers towards the acceptability of integrating finger-stick point-of-care testing to enhance treatment uptake in the prison setting: Perspectives of people in prison health personnel, correctional personnel and stakeholders (The PIVOT Study)

Status

Completed

Investigators

Lise Lafferty, Carla Treloar, Andrew Lloyd, Jason Grebely et al.

The Problem

There is a close relationship between imprisonment, injecting drug use, and HCV. Individuals with chronic HCV who spend some time in prison are likely to represent the most marginalised and ‘hard-to-access’ subgroup of the affected population. In addition, the prison environment is a key venue for ongoing transmissions.

The PIVOT project aims to evaluate a ‘one-stop shop’ approach with point-of-care HCV RNA testing, linkage to hepatitis care, non-invasive liver disease assessment, and same-visit direct-acting antiviral (DAA) treatment initiation, with an intent to improve efficiencies in HCV care in the ‘real-world’ high throughput of imprisonment, short stay, and release. It is anticipated interviews with both stakeholders and personnel taking part in PIVOT will inform national scale up of point-of-care HCV RNA testing within prisons. Interviews with personnel and stakeholders will explore the role of point-of-care HCV RNA testing within a highly mobile, transient population group in addressing Australia’s commitment to eliminate HCV as a public health threat by 2030.

The Solution

This social science research project seeks to investigate the acceptability of point-of-care HCV RNA testing among people in prison (patients), Justice Health staff, and Corrective Services staff, and key administrators from both agencies, with a view to contribute to scale up of point-of-care HCV RNA testing across correctional centres in Australia.

Related Publications 

Reducing barriers to the hepatitis C care cascade in prison via point-of-care RNA testing: a qualitative exploration of men in prison using an integrated framework.

Lise Lafferty, Yumi Sheehan, Amanda Cochrane, Jason Grebely, Andrew R. Lloyd, Carla Treloar. Society for the study of addiction.

“That was quick, simple, and easy”: Patient perceptions of acceptability of point-of-care hepatitis C RNA testing at a reception prison.

Lise Lafferty, Amanda Cochrane, Yumi Sheehan, Carla Treloar, Jason Grebely, Andrew R Lloyd. International Journal of Drug Policy (Volume 99;99:103456). 

Related projects 

“You need a designated officer” - Recommendations from correctional and justice health personnel for scaling up hepatitis C treatment-as-prevention in the prison setting.

L Lafferty, J Rance, M Byrne… C Treloar, SToP-C Study Group. The International Journal of Drug Policy (Volume 106).

Scaling up sexually transmissible infections point-of-care testing in remote Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities: healthcare worker’s perceptions of barriers and facilitators

Lise Lafferty, Kirsty Smith, Louise Causer…. Mark Shephard and Rebecca Guy on behalf of TTANGO2 Collaboration. Implementation Science Communications (Article 127)