J Owczarzak
Biographic Data
| ID | 13811 |
|---|---|
| NAME | J Owczarzak |
| GIVEN NAMES | J |
| FAMILY NAME | Owczarzak |
| SIGNATURE | OWCZARZAK J |
| AFFILIATIONS | Johns Hopkins University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2380-5533 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 41 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 28 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 41 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2008 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Feasibility and Preliminary Effectiveness of a Data-to-Care Intervention for HIV-Positive People Who Inject Drugs in Ukraine
Antiretroviral therapy (ART) interruptions are common among people who inject drugs (PWID) and contribute to viral rebound, disease progression, and onward transmission. Data-to-Care (D2C) strategies, which use routine health data to identify and re-engage people living with HIV who have fallen out of care, are widely used in high-income settings but rarely evaluated in low- and middle-income countries. We piloted a Ukrainian Data-to-Care (UD2C) …
Harm reduction vending machines
Stigma Towards Female Clients Who Inject Drugs Among Healthcare Providers in Ukraine
Background: In Ukraine women account for quarter of all people who inject drugs. Apart from several non-governmental organizations that provide advocacy and empowerment services to women who inject drugs (WWID), there are no integrated full-service health care facilities tailored specifically to the needs of WWID in Ukraine. They often have diminished access to drug use treatment, health and social services due to bureaucratic rules and processes…
Using metaphor analysis to understand personal and familial experiences with behavioral variant frontotemporal dementia
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a progressive neurodegenerative condition that causes changes in behavior, personality, and language. As researchers better understand the genetic components of FTD, the number of people pursuing genetic testing, either due to their own symptoms of FTD or their family history, is increasing, making it important to understand the impact of genetic diagnosis on lived experience. Individuals may use metaphors to desc…
“All You Can Do is What You Know to Do”
Community-based distribution of naloxone has continued to serve as an important strategy in combatting the U.S. opioid overdose crisis. People who use drugs are first responders in this crisis, administering and disseminating knowledge about naloxone among their social networks. However, it is unclear how knowledge of naloxone evolves over time and across individuals, especially amid a volatile, unregulated drug market. OBJECTIVES: We conducted 2…
A mixed methods exploration of HIV and drug use disclosure in healthcare settings among HIV-positive women who inject drugs in Ukraine
Disclosing one's HIV status or drug use in healthcare settings has significant implications for public and individual health. It is related to reduced occupational risk of infection for medical providers, improved care, reduction in disease transmission, and other clinical benefits for patients. However, disclosure can be challenging and problematic due to its discrediting aspects. We explored HIV and drug use disclosure experiences in clinical s…
Using Latent Profile Analysis to Identify Stigma Typologies Among a Sample of Women Living with HIV and Who Inject Drugs in Ukraine
We can't change that while they're in the hospital”
It always needs a higher level of care than what I can provide”
Association between Current Substance Use, Healthy Behaviors, and Depression among Ukrainian College Students
Depression is a pervasive issue among college students worldwide, yet there is a significant gap in the literature regarding its prevalence and coping strategies in the Ukrainian context. The present study aims to fill this gap by investigating how substance use and health-promoting behaviors relate to depressive symptoms among Ukrainian college students. Health-promoting behaviors are an important strategy to prevent depression, whereas substanc…
Renegotiation, uncertainty, imagination
No one runs alone
PWUD Experiences of Criminal Justice Reform
In this paper we explore people who use drugs (PWUD) perceptions and experiences of drug-related law enforcement in a major U.S. city. Maryland recently implemented several harm reduction policies/interventions aiming to improve PWUD-police relationships, such as the Good Samaritan Law (GSL), intended to avoid criminalizing police encounters with PWUD in cases of overdose. PWUD, though most impacted by these efforts, are seldom included in the de…
Moral Economies of Care and Women Who Use Drugs in Ukraine
This article analyzes interviews with women who use drugs in Ukraine to understand the care conundrum they face as members of a stigmatized group. In the interviews, the women sought to position themselves as deserving and needing care as members of a vulnerable category—sometimes as women who use drugs or people living with HIV, but also as mothers—yet also themselves capable of providing care for others. We examine how women who use drugs in Uk…
Social support needs of HIV-positive individuals reentering community settings from correctional facilities in Johannesburg, South Africa
Social networks and social support are important factors in medication adherence among people living with HIV (PLWH). Social networks can provide emotional, logistic, and material support leading to increased overall engagement in care. Certain populations of PLWH may have more limited access to social support, including those reentering community settings from correctional facilities. During periods of incarceration, social connections with fami…
The Relationship Between Intersectional Drug Use and HIV Stigma and HIV Care Engagement Among Women Living with HIV in Ukraine
Implications of the Revised Common Rule for Qualitative Health Research
In January 2019, revisions to federal regulations that outline requirements for ethical oversight of human subjects research (The Revised Common Rule) went into effect. These revisions reflect major changes in thinking about risk and protection of research subjects. The Revised Common Rule (RCR) considerably curtails federal oversight of social and behavioral science, with most non-interventional research and "benign" behavioral interventions bec…
“I Know It Is Going to Ruin Their Life
BACKGROUND: Considering most people who inject drugs (PWID) received help with the first injection, understanding the perspective of potential 'initiators' is a priority to inform harm reduction interventions. This paper examines how PWID narrate their experiences with injection initiation and assistance from the lens of their lived experience and perceptions of harm reduction. METHODS: = 4), Maryland and analyzed using a narrative approach. RESU…
HIV Risk Among Urban and Suburban People Who Inject Drugs
Lessons Learned from Implementing the SHIELD Intervention
You're nobody without a piece of paper
Where culture meets genetics
“When You're Getting High… You Just Don't Want to Be Around Anybody.” A Qualitative Exploration of Reasons for Injecting Alone
Background Rates of death from opioid overdose continue to rise in the United States. One harm reduction strategy designed to reduce fatal overdose risk among people who inject drugs (PWID) is an advisory to not use drugs alone. However, the feasibility and acceptability of this message have not been evaluated. Objectives: This paper explores the drug use practices of young PWID related to injecting alone and reasons for doing so. Methods: From 2…
Agency in the fentanyl era
We know the streets
Audit Culture
Evaluation has become expected within the nonprofit sector, including HIV prevention service delivery through community-based organizations (CBOs). While staff and directors at CBOs may acknowledge the potential contribution of evaluation data to the improvement of agency services, the results of evaluation are often used to demonstrate fiscal prudence, efficiency, and accountability to funders and the public, rather than to produce information f…
Defining Democracy and the Terms of Engagement with the Postsocialist Polish State Insights from HIV/Aids
This article explores the history of HIV activism in Poland from the socialist period through the early 1990s transformation as a means of examining the reconfiguration of rights, obligations, and responsibility as Poland redefined itself as a market democracy. Drawing on archival materials, in-depth qualitative interviews with current and former HIV activists, and participant observation at HIV prevention organizations in Warsaw, Poland, I sketc…
Defining HIV Risk and Determining Responsibility in Postsocialist Poland
Drawing on 15 months of ethnographic research on HIV prevention programs in Poland, I explore the consequences of the shift from models of HIV prevention that emphasize "risk groups" and AIDS blame, to models that focus on "risky behaviors" and universal risk. The centrality of choice making and individual risk management in these models suggests objective risk assessment free from moralizing arguments. The Polish national prevention strategy shi…
We know the streets
You're nobody without a piece of paper
PWUD Experiences of Criminal Justice Reform
In this paper we explore people who use drugs (PWUD) perceptions and experiences of drug-related law enforcement in a major U.S. city. Maryland recently implemented several harm reduction policies/interventions aiming to improve PWUD-police relationships, such as the Good Samaritan Law (GSL), intended to avoid criminalizing police encounters with PWUD in cases of overdose. PWUD, though most impacted by these efforts, are seldom included in the de…
Moral Economies of Care and Women Who Use Drugs in Ukraine
This article analyzes interviews with women who use drugs in Ukraine to understand the care conundrum they face as members of a stigmatized group. In the interviews, the women sought to position themselves as deserving and needing care as members of a vulnerable category—sometimes as women who use drugs or people living with HIV, but also as mothers—yet also themselves capable of providing care for others. We examine how women who use drugs in Uk…
Where culture meets genetics
Not by bread alone
Defining Democracy and the Terms of Engagement with the Postsocialist Polish State Insights from HIV/Aids
This article explores the history of HIV activism in Poland from the socialist period through the early 1990s transformation as a means of examining the reconfiguration of rights, obligations, and responsibility as Poland redefined itself as a market democracy. Drawing on archival materials, in-depth qualitative interviews with current and former HIV activists, and participant observation at HIV prevention organizations in Warsaw, Poland, I sketc…
Defining HIV Risk and Determining Responsibility in Postsocialist Poland
Drawing on 15 months of ethnographic research on HIV prevention programs in Poland, I explore the consequences of the shift from models of HIV prevention that emphasize "risk groups" and AIDS blame, to models that focus on "risky behaviors" and universal risk. The centrality of choice making and individual risk management in these models suggests objective risk assessment free from moralizing arguments. The Polish national prevention strategy shi…
Activism, NGOs, and HIV Prevention in Postsocialist Poland
With the collapse of socialism, the number of nongovernmental organizations in Eastern Europe increased dramatically, as part of democracy and capitalism building. In the West, NGOs have served as key players in shaping the response of the HIV epidemic, reflecting both the withdrawal of the state from service provision in line with neoliberal reforms and the activist roots from which many of these organizations originated. As a result, AIDS NGOs …
Evidence-based HIV prevention in community settings
As part of the efforts to expand evidence-based practice (EBP) in HIV prevention at the community level, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) created the Diffusion of Effective Behavioral Interventions (DEBI) program. Frontline service providers, who are charged with adopting and implementing these interventions, however, have resisted and criticized the dissemination of evidence-based HIV prevention interventions. Their failure t…
The Secret
What is "Support" in Supportive Housing
Supportive housing programs are proposed as a way of increasing housing access and stability for the chronically homeless, improving access to needed services, and decreasing vulnerability to HIV and other diseases. Little is known about residents' understandings of and experiences with different models of supportive housing and how they fit within residents' broader strategies to maintain housing. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 23 …
Beyond the Ball
"Jarrett Zigon, "HIV is God's Blessing
A view from the frontlines in Slavyansk, Ukraine
Audit Culture
Evaluation has become expected within the nonprofit sector, including HIV prevention service delivery through community-based organizations (CBOs). While staff and directors at CBOs may acknowledge the potential contribution of evaluation data to the improvement of agency services, the results of evaluation are often used to demonstrate fiscal prudence, efficiency, and accountability to funders and the public, rather than to produce information f…
PrEP Awareness, Familiarity, Comfort, and Prescribing Experience among US Primary Care Providers and HIV Specialists
HIV prevention, precarity, and fragmented landscapes of service provision in Ukraine
Compliance with the City of Chicago’s partial ban on menthol cigarette sales
The poor compliance observed with Chicago's partial menthol cigarette ban highlights the need for comprehensive efforts. Optimising local resources to target enforcement efforts in gas stations could improve compliance. Ordinances that also restrict advertising could potentially enhance ban impact by reducing exposure to product and promotions
Pure’ drug users, commercial sex workers and ‘ordinary girls’
International best practices call for a gender-responsive approach to HIV prevention for women, including those who use drugs and those who engage in sex work. This paper draws on multiple qualitative data sources collected over five years in Ukraine to explore the notions of gender, women and family that buttress HIV-related programmes for women. Our analysis reveals that service providers often cast women as hapless victims of unfortunate famil…
The (re)productive work of labour migration
Limited attention has been given to the effects of labour migration on the reproductive lives of women 'left behind' as their partners travel for work. Drawing on two rounds of qualitative interviews with 20 women in the central hill region of Nepal, this paper examines how global economic processes that lead Nepali men to travel for work also affect women's reproductive work, including childrearing and reproductive decision-making. Women underst…
“When You're Getting High… You Just Don't Want to Be Around Anybody.” A Qualitative Exploration of Reasons for Injecting Alone
Background Rates of death from opioid overdose continue to rise in the United States. One harm reduction strategy designed to reduce fatal overdose risk among people who inject drugs (PWID) is an advisory to not use drugs alone. However, the feasibility and acceptability of this message have not been evaluated. Objectives: This paper explores the drug use practices of young PWID related to injecting alone and reasons for doing so. Methods: From 2…
Agency in the fentanyl era
We know the streets
“I Know It Is Going to Ruin Their Life
BACKGROUND: Considering most people who inject drugs (PWID) received help with the first injection, understanding the perspective of potential 'initiators' is a priority to inform harm reduction interventions. This paper examines how PWID narrate their experiences with injection initiation and assistance from the lens of their lived experience and perceptions of harm reduction. METHODS: = 4), Maryland and analyzed using a narrative approach. RESU…
HIV Risk Among Urban and Suburban People Who Inject Drugs
Lessons Learned from Implementing the SHIELD Intervention
You're nobody without a piece of paper
Where culture meets genetics
Social support needs of HIV-positive individuals reentering community settings from correctional facilities in Johannesburg, South Africa
Social networks and social support are important factors in medication adherence among people living with HIV (PLWH). Social networks can provide emotional, logistic, and material support leading to increased overall engagement in care. Certain populations of PLWH may have more limited access to social support, including those reentering community settings from correctional facilities. During periods of incarceration, social connections with fami…
Medicine (31 works) · Sociology (25 works) · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk (22 works) · Psychology (22 works) · Political science (20 works) · Psychiatry (15 works) · Nursing (13 works) · Public health (12 works) · Social Psychology (11 works) · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions (10 works)