Mar 25, 2026
Dr. Adrian Guta is a professor in the University of Windsor School of Social Work. (DAVE GAUTHIER/University of Windsor)
More than 53,000 Canadians have died from opioid-related causes since 2016.
As governments scale back harm reduction services, Dr. Adrian Guta wants to understand what happens to the people left behind — and what alternatives could keep them alive.
The University of Windsor School of Social Work professor is leading two major studies examining how drug policy, health systems and harm reduction services shape HIV prevention and treatment outcomes for people who use drugs.
The work is backed by more than $2.2 million in new funding: a $299,730 Ontario HIV Treatment Network (OHTN) grant and a five-year, $1.9-million Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) team grant.
“Together, the projects respond to overlapping public health challenges,” says Guta.
“While Canada has made progress in reducing HIV, rates are rising again in some communities. At the same time, the ongoing toxic drug crisis — driven largely by fentanyl and other highly potent substances — has resulted in more than 53,000 opioid-related deaths since 2016 and increased health risks for people who use drugs.”
The OHTN-funded project, running two years, will examine how emerging community-based models may help sustain engagement in care as policy restrictions and funding cuts reduce access to harm reduction services.
The study will assess how these models could help maintain access to safer supply while strengthening connections to HIV and hepatitis C care for people who use drugs.
“Ontario is undergoing a significant shift in harm reduction policy and service availability,” says Guta.
“This study is designed to understand what those changes mean on the ground for people who rely on these services and to explore alternative models that could sustain access to care.”
As the principal investigator on the provincial grant, Guta will work with collaborators including Dr. Carol Strike from the University of Toronto, and a multidisciplinary team of researchers, clinicians and community partners from across Canada and the United States.
“The project brings together expertise in harm reduction, addiction medicine, community health and public health policy to examine how changes in Ontario’s harm reduction landscape are affecting HIV prevention and treatment efforts,” he says.
The OHTN study complements the larger national CIHR initiative, which Guta is co-leading with Strike and knowledge users.
The pan-Canadian project examines how drug policy, health systems and harm reduction services intersect to shape HIV and other sexually transmitted and blood-borne infection (STBBI) outcomes among people who use drugs.
The CIHR-funded team brings together researchers, clinicians, community organizations and people with lived and living experience of substance use from across Canada, with additional partners in the United States and Australia.
A central collaborator is the Substance Use Health Network (SUHN), a national network that connects health-care providers, researchers, and community organizations working to improve substance use health across Canada.
The two grants align closely with Guta’s work as a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Health Disparities and Public Health. His research examines how drug policy, stigma and health systems shape inequities in substance use health.
Dr. Adrian Guta is leading two major studies examining how drug policy, health systems and harm reduction services shape HIV prevention
and treatment outcomes for people who use drugs. (DAVE GAUTHIER/University of Windsor)
The national CIHR initiative will establish a community-based research network that monitors how evolving drug policies shape health outcomes and human rights, develops practical tools to support integrated and stigma-free care, strengthens research capacity in smaller cities and underserved regions, and rapidly shares findings with policymakers, practitioners and the public.
The CIHR team grant will also create meaningful training opportunities for the next generation of researchers at the University of Windsor and across Canada.
Graduate students and postdoctoral fellows will learn with and from community partners and people with lived and living experience of substance use — an approach that treats community knowledge as central to the research process, not supplementary to it. Trainees will gain experience in community-based participatory research methods, knowledge mobilization, and equity-focused public health practice.
“Together, these projects allow us to examine both the immediate impacts of policy change and the longer-term structural issues shaping HIV and substance use care,” says Guta.
“At a time when many jurisdictions are scaling back harm reduction services, it is essential to generate rigorous evidence about what happens when these supports disappear — and what alternatives might sustain health and dignity for the communities most affected.”
Across both initiatives, Guta says the research teams will work closely with community partners and people with lived experience to ensure findings translate quickly into practice and policy.
By Sara Elliott
Courtesy: https://www.uwindsor.ca/news/2026-03-24/uwindsor-researcher-tracking-human-cost-canadas-retreat-harm-reduction
