Item encompasses two videocassette recordings of talks delivered at the "Vancouver Symposium on Networks, Needles, Drugs, Risk and Infectious Disease" on the evenings of Monday, August 28, and Tuesday, August 29, 2000 at SFU Harbour Centre.
The first videocassette (labelled "Vancouver Symposium Tape 1 August 28, 2000") is a recording of the talks delivered at the Symposium on the evening of Monday, August 28, 2000. The recording begins with footage of participants awaiting the start of the talks in a lecture theatre, chatting informally. Bill Richards begins the proceedings by introducing himself as the Chair of the Symposium, the location, and the three speakers: Sam Friedman (Senior Research Fellow, National Development and Research Institutes, New York), John Wylie (Manitoba Health, Cadham Provincial Laboratory, Winnipeg), and Ann Jolly (Bureau of HIV/AIDS, STD and TB, Laboratory CDC, Ottawa). Friedman talks about networks and the analysis of elements that affect epidemics. Wylie talks about the use of social and sexual network analysis to study the ecology of organisms, and show the environment through which infectious diseases can spread. He specializes in chlamydia and gonorrhoea, and specifically why Aboriginal communities in Manitoba are most at risk. Jolly talks about social and sexual network analysis as methods to work through data and identify people of priority, and then use the data to get disease under control. Friedman and Jolly each speak for about 20 minutes, while Wylie speaks for approximately 10 minutes.
The second videocassette (labelled and misdated as "Vancouver Symposium Tape 2 August 28, 2000") is a recording of the talks delivered at the Symposium on the evening of Tuesday, August 29, 2000. As with the first videocassette, the recording begins with footage of participants awaiting the start of the talks in a lecture theatre. Bill Richards once again begins the proceedings by introducing himself as the Chair of the Symposium, the location, and the two speakers: Scott Clair (Hispanic Health Council, Hartford, Connecticut) and Dean Gerstein (Senior Research Vice-President, Division of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Studies, NORC). Clair talks about his work with street and intravenous drug users, and in particular with the Hispanic and African-American communities in Hartford. They are examining how these communities are interacting and the risk behaviours for HIV infection in order to gain a better understanding of how to prevent it using intervention programs. They are also working towards a peer model. Gerstein talks about the outcomes of studies he conducted among drug users in white, African-American, and Hispanic communities in Chicago and Washington, DC, and how the patterns and aspects of these networks affected their risk of getting HIV. Gerstein also speaks of his interest in the outcomes of substance abuse treatment, and the relationship between drug policy and how much people are using. Clair speaks for approximately one hour, while Gerstein speaks for about 45 minutes.
