Publications
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Tipping the Balance: Why Legal Services Are Essential to Health Care for Drug Users in Ukraine
The rate of HIV has been on a steady incline in Ukraine, particularly among people who inject drugs. Several agencies have designed programs to help prevent HIV by ensuring access to sterile syringes, providing social services to drug users and people living with HIV or AIDS, and offering treatment for drug dependence, including buprenorphine treatment. However, a new report from OSI and the International Renaissance Foundation finds that few programs in Ukraine offer legal services to people who use drugs — despite the fact that legal services are easy to administer and complementary to health care. The report profiles five organizations in Ukraine that have successfully integrated legal services into HIV prevention and treatment programs. The organizations—located in Kyiv, Kherson, Lviv, Nikolaev, and Poltava—have increased access to legal services by placing lawyers at locations where drug users already go for needle exchanges, counseling, and referrals to drug dependence treatment. Likewise, the programs have increased access to harm reduction by drawing in new clients who come for the legal services and stay for the HIV prevention services.
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