Collective Empowerment While Creating Knowledge: A Description of a Community-Based Participatory Research Project With Drug Users in Bangkok, Thailand

Abstract

In light of growing concerns regarding the ongoing drug war in Thailand and a lack of support for people who inject drugs in this setting, in 2008, we undertook a community-based participatory research project involving a community of active drug users at a peer-run drop-in center in Bangkok. This case study describes a unique research partnership developed between academic and active drug users and demonstrates that participatory approaches can help empower this vulnerable population while generating valid research. Further research is needed to explore ways of optimizing community-based participatory research methods when applied to drug-using populations.

Keywords :

• community-based participatory research
• injection drug use
• Thailand
• community empowerment

THE AUTHORS

Kanna Hayashi, MIA, MPH, is a Project Coordinator for the Mitsampan Community Research Project (Bangkok, Thailand) at the Urban Health Research Initiative of the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, and a Ph.D. student in Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Ms Hayashi earned her double masters’ degrees in International Affairs and Public Health from Columbia University. Her research interests include social determinants of health, HIV/AIDS, injection drug use, ethics of public health, and international health policy. Ms Hayashi aims to link theory and practice to improve the health and well-being of marginalized populations around the world by bringing together her multidisciplinary academic training and extensive professional experience with public and private sectors in Asia, Europe, and the North America.

Nadia Fairbairn, MD, is a member of the Urban Health Research Initiative (UHRI) research team and an internal medicine resident at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. She was the Project Coordinator for the community-based research project “HIV Risk Behaviours and Access to Harm Reduction and Treatment Services among Injection Drug Users in Thailand” at the Mitsampan Harm Reduction Center in Bangkok, Thailand. Her interests include the social and environmental factors that contextualize risk behaviors among injection drug users and the use of novel community-based approaches to address harms and guide health policy in urban settings.

Paisan Suwannawong is the Founding Director of the Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group (TTAG), a community-based PLWHA-run advocacy and rights organization based in Bangkok. He is also a Cofounder of the Thai Drug Users’ Network (TDN) and the founding chairman of the Thai Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (TNP+). He brought the first community harm reduction trainings to Thailand, and helps run the Mitsampan Harm Reduction Center, a drop-in center for injecting drug users in Bangkok. He has coproduced and authored numerous human rights and public health research reports on HIV and people who use drugs in Thailand, including in partnership with Human Rights Watch, the Open Society Institute, and the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS. He has been living with HIV for 18 years.

Karyn Kaplan has worked in Thailand for 20 years. Ms Kaplan is the Cofounder and Director of Policy and Development for the Thai AIDS Treatment Action Group (TTAG), a community-based organization that advocates for the human rights of people living with or at high risk of HIV/AIDS. Ms Kaplan and her partner, Paisan Suwannawong, conducted Thailand's first human rights documentation project among IDU in 2002, which led to the founding of the Thai Drug Users’ Network (TDN) and a groundbreaking Global Fund grant for Thailand's first peer-driven harm reduction project. Ms Kaplan recently published “Human Rights Documentation and Advocacy –A Guide for Organizations of People Who Use Drugs (OSI 2009)” and received the John M. Lloyd Foundation HIV/AIDS Leadership Award together with Mr Suwannawong.

Evan Wood, MD, Ph.D., is Codirector of the Urban Health Research Initiative at the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, and a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (Division of AIDS), Vancouver, BC, Canada. He has extensive research experience in the area of clinical epidemiology, especially in evaluating the treatment of HIV/AIDS, addiction, and epidemiologic study design, especially among injection drug-using populations. Dr Wood is a Physician Epidemiologist with a long history of involvement in the health care issues facing persons who inject drugs, and his current research focuses on the prevention and treatment of HIV infection among drug users.

Thomas Kerr, Ph.D., is the Codirector of the Urban Health Research Initiative at the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of British Columbia (Division of AIDS), Vancouver, BC, Canada. In his role at the British Columbia Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS, Dr Kerr is a Principal Investigator of several large cohort studies involving people who inject drugs and individuals living with HIV/AIDS, including the Vancouver Injection Drug Users Study (VIDUS). Dr Kerr's primary research interests are HIV/AIDS, injection drug use, health policy and service evaluation, and community-based research methods.