Carla Treloar
Biographic Data
| ID | 147037 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Carla Treloar |
| GIVEN NAMES | Carla |
| FAMILY NAME | Treloar |
| SIGNATURE | TRELOAR C |
| AFFILIATIONS | UNSW Sydney |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-8230-0386 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 190 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 268 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 190 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1996 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 10 |
Experiences of Living with HIV, Stigma, and Healthcare Access in Australia among People Born in China, Thailand, and Latin America Compared to People Born in Australia
In Australia, progress towards the UNAIDS 95-95-95 targets is lower among people living with HIV born overseas compared to those born in Australia. Stigma is a major barrier to achieving these targets. This project aimed to identify differences in experiences of HIV-related stigma and healthcare outcomes between people born in Asia, Latin America, and Australia. Between April-August 2023, 153 Sydney Sexual Health Centre clients who were living wi…
Caring infrastructures for sexual health and the implications of antibiotic-resistant STIs
Infrastructures fundamentally shape sexual health, but their gaps and failings often only come into view during moments of crisis. Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a looming microbiological and global societal crisis, and one that is posing increasing challenges and risks for medical practice and public health alike. In sexual health, concerns have been raised about growing resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae and the less well-known Mycoplasma g…
Asserting human rights in the debate on drug-use stigma
Stigma is increasingly recognized as a key contributor to poorer mental and physical health and wellbeing of people who use drugs and a barrier to accessing health services (Wogen and Restrepo 2020
Navigating the Gap
Partnerships between researchers and consumers—specifically, people who use drugs in the context of our research co‐production—can significantly enhance the relevance and impact of research. Funders increasingly emphasise the value of community‐researcher collaborations, yet translating this commitment into effective practice remains challenging. This commentary draws from our experience in developing an application for a collaborative grant with…
Aboriginal adults’ perspectives on talking with young people about sexual health and relationships in two communities in Western Sydney, Australia
This strengths-based study investigated Aboriginal adults’ views on young people’s sexual health, attitudes and relationships. Between 2019 and 2020, sixteen interviews were conducted with adults aged 25 and older from two Aboriginal communities in Western Sydney, Australia. In this paper, we discuss adults’ perspectives on intergenerational communication about sex in their communities. Participants highlighted intergenerational learning via talk…
Service provider perceptions of incorporating hepatitis C testing technologies into standard practice
The expansion of HCV testing and care necessitates that more structural support (e.g., adequate funding and staffing) be offered to service providers. Despite the adaptability of providers, a one-size-fits-all approach will not suit the needs of all settings
Reinfection following direct-acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C infection among people in prison with recent injecting drug use
The high HCV reinfection incidence in prisons emphasises the need to enhance prison-based harm reduction measures including access to sterile injecting equipment, currently prohibited in Australian prisons. The finding that reinfection accounts for most recurrent viremia could assist retreatment clinical decision-making in prison
Tracing Structural Stigma in Health Care Towards People With Blood Borne Viruses and Sexually Transmissible Infections
Background Analysis of power is often omitted from research on stigma. This project examined structural stigma and power in health care for people affected by blood-borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections (BBV/STIs) with a focus on societal norms and hidden assumptions that shape health care practice and policy. Method In-depth interviews were conducted in 2023 with 24 key informants with expertise in designing and delivering services…
Socio-demographic and Psychosocial Determinants of HIV Knowledge and Attitudes Towards HIV among Black Sub-Saharan African Migrants in Australia
Despite recent advances in HIV prevention and treatment, black migrants from sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) in high-income countries remain disproportionately affected by HIV. Limited knowledge and stigmatising attitudes towards HIV often hinder testing, treatment uptake, and effective prevention. This study examined the socio-demographic and psychosocial factors of HIV knowledge and attitudes towards HIV among black migrants from SSA living in Austral…
A clarion call to the addiction science community
Making long‐acting treatment work
Hydromorphone Hopes
“The Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Community Is Not Just Minoritised But Ignored”
BACKGROUND: People from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds who are living in high-income countries, are disproportionately impacted by blood-borne viruses and sexually transmissible infections (BBVs/STIs). Despite this, many do not engage with available preventive and treatment services due to a range of patient, provider and systems level barriers that make patient engagement challenging. This study explores ways to make he…
Suboptimal Patient-Provider Communication About Undetectable = Untransmittable and HIV Transmission Risk in Australia and the US
The Undetectable = Untransmittable (U = U) campaign aims to raise global awareness that people living with HIV whose viral load is undetectable cannot sexually transmit HIV. Healthcare providers are uniquely positioned to disseminate the U = U message. Our study explored patient-provider communication about U = U and HIV risk from the perspectives of gay, bisexual, and other men living with HIV (MLHIV) and healthcare providers engaged in HIV trea…
Implications of the fragility of opioid agonist treatment continuity on hepatitis C re-exposure concerns among people in prison
Continuity of OAT and HCV care remains a fragile experience for people who cycle in and out of incarceration. People who miss their OAT appointment in the community might wait several months upon re-incarceration to re-enter the OAT program. This leaves people vulnerable to injection sharing in custody and, subsequently, increased risk of HCV (re-)exposure while waiting to recommence OAT or to return to the optimal dosing level
It's not just running the test”
This study illustrates several challenges to and enablers of adopting a decentralised HCV point-of-care testing program, highlighting the need to further explore what providers require to effectively implement these interventions
Reinfection following successful direct-acting antiviral therapy for hepatitis C virus infection among people with recent injecting drug use
The relatively high incidence of reinfection seen in this study underscores the importance of targeted harm reduction measures and monitoring for HCV reinfections within the first year following successful treatment among people who inject drugs. Additional research into integrated models of care incorporating harm reduction and supporting reducing risk of reinfection and HCV treatment are needed
Is drug-use stigma a breach of human rights law
Whilst international drug policy increasingly recognises the need to address drug-use stigma, there is limited consideration of how drug-use stigma can be addressed through legal frameworks. This commentary considers the relationship between drug-use stigma and human rights law that prohibits torture and cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. In doing so, this commentary examines a landmark Australian coronial case that raised the possibility th…
Acceptability of hepatitis C testing using point-of-care testing and dried blood spot collection among people at risk of hepatitis C infection
Applying Sekhon's acceptability framework highlighted remaining service gaps to bridge client HCV testing experiences, including enhanced education on testing modalities and their results, an increased need for non-judgemental care, and the use of peer support in community settings
The ‘knowing’ body in the becoming of buprenorphine depot treatment
There is a tendency to approach the body as if passive, and as acted upon, in medical treatment studies. We undertook a longitudinal qualitative study of monthly buprenorphine depot, with 36 participants (25 men, 11 women; of whom 32 were followed up over three years). Our analysis draws attention to the body as an active actor in the becoming of buprenorphine depot treatment. We trace two scenarios of agency in which bodies participate. The firs…
Bridging the evidence and the politics
Supervised Injectable Opioid Treatment (SIOT) targets people experiencing opioid dependence who have not benefited from existing treatments. In this population, SIOT has been demonstrated to be efficacious and effective, yet this modality of treatment has only been taken up in a few countries. In this commentary we describe the socio-political context and history to the recent establishment of an implementation trial of injectable hydromorphone i…
Mediated Urgency
Often, research takes place once a health issue is already at ‘crisis’ point. However, health professionals and populations can have different understandings of ‘urgency’. At present, health authorities, scientists and other medical professionals are increasingly concerned about escalating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in the context of STIs. Clinicians worry about Neisseria gonorrhoeae becoming progressively resistant to last‐line treatment, as…
Stigma and patient work
Patient work refers to the quotidian labour undertaken by individuals to manage health, often unrecognised by health systems. This article argues that anticipated and received stigma and inclusivity labour comprise additional forms of patient work specific to minority populations. We draw on a case study of gay and bisexual men's experiences accessing healthcare services related to HIV prevention and testing in New South Wales (NSW), Australia's …
Professional identities and new technologies of hepatitis C point-of-care testing
Professional identities are shaping the rollout of HCV point-of-care testing. The prioritisation of risk, agility, and quality in professional identities shape the possibilities for HCV point-of-care testing. The analysis demonstrates the inextricability of new technology from the people who deliver it
GBTQ+ safe sex entanglements
Few studies have explored community experiences of our increasingly resistant bacterial landscape, and, in the sphere of sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and antimicrobial resistance, there is even greater absence of community-centred research. This is despite a growth in STI transmission worldwide, which, alongside accelerated resistance, will disproportionately affect GBTQ+ (gay, bisexual, trans, queer+) populations. In this article, dr…
Beyond deficit
Health research concerning Indigenous peoples has been strongly characterised by deficit discourse-a 'mode of thinking' that is overly focused on risk behaviours and problems. Strengths-based approaches offer a different perspective by promoting a set of values that recognise the capacities and capabilities of Indigenous peoples. In this article, we seek to understand the conceptual basis of strengths-based approaches as currently presented in he…
The productive techniques and constitutive effects of 'evidence-based policy' and 'consumer participation' discourses in health policy processes
Blood and bioidentity
Diffracting addicting binaries
Associated with social and individual harm, loss of control and destructive behaviour, addiction is widely considered to be a major social problem. Most models of addiction, including the influential disease model, rely on the volition/compulsion binary, conceptualising addiction as a disorder of compulsion. In order to interrogate this prevailing view, this article draws on qualitative data from interviews with people who describe themselves as …
The Lived Experience of Hepatitis C and its Treatment Among Injecting Drug Users
Hepatitis C virus infection is a stigmatized condition because of its close association with injecting drug use. There is a need to explore how people who inject drugs (IDUs) perceive hepatitis C, including in relation to treatment experience. We undertook a review, using a qualitative synthesis approach, of English-language qualitative research focusing on the lived experience of hepatitis C among IDUs. The review included 25 published articles …
Naloxone works
For over 20 years, drug policy experts have been calling for the wider availability of naloxone, to enable lay overdose witnesses to respond to opioid overdose events. However, the 'evidence base' for peer-administered naloxone has become a key point of contention. This contention opens up critical questions about how knowledge ('evidence') is constituted and validated in drug policy processes, which voices may be heard, and how knowledge produce…
Perceptions of discriminatory treatment by staff as predictors of drug treatment completion
Adopting a mixed methods approach facilitated exploration of the impact of perceived discrimination on treatment from both clients' and health-care workers' perspectives. This methodology may also enhance interpretation and utilisation of these findings in drug treatment
Rethinking the relationship between sex work, mental health and stigma
Hepatitis C cure as a 'gathering
Since the advent of direct-acting antiviral hepatitis C treatments, widespread enthusiasm about disease elimination has emerged. This article examines experiences of hepatitis C treatment and cure in this period. Mobilising Fraser and Seear's (Making disease, making citizens: The politics of hepatitis C, Ashgate, 2011) approach to hepatitis C as a 'gathering', we analyse cure not as a biomedical phenomenon but as a social and material event. To d…
Resilient Coping
Social marginalization is associated with poor health outcomes for affected people. However, in a psychosocial study of treatment for hepatitis C infection conducted in Sydney, Australia, participants living in socially disadvantaged circumstances applied adaptive approaches learned from past experiences of drug dependence, living with symptoms of chronic illness, coping with depression and childhood sexual abuse to enable them to cope with sever…
Rethinking safety and fidelity
Hepatitis C (HCV) is a disease of the liver with a range of potentially debilitating symptoms, the severity of which differ from person to person. HCV is a major public health challenge. Globally an estimated one in 12 persons is affected by the virus, and substantial new transmissions occur each year. The vast majority of new transmissions occur among people who inject drugs, particularly through practices such as sharing of needles, syringes an…
Practices of partnership
Despite the majority of needle-syringe sharing occurring between sexual partners, the intimate partnerships of people who inject drugs have been largely overlooked as key sites of both hepatitis C virus prevention and transmission, and risk management more generally. Drawing on interviews with 34 couples living in inner-city Australia, this article focuses on participants' accounts of 'sharing'. While health promotion discourses and conventional …
The intimate relationship as a site of social protection
Ethical challenges and responses in harm reduction research
The Experience of Interferon-Based Treatments for Hepatitis C Infection
Clinical trials of interferon-based treatments for hepatitis C infection show decrements in patients' health-related quality of life due to side effects of therapy. The impact of side effects on patients' overall quality of life still remains unclear. To explore this issue, the authors interviewed people living in New South Wales, Australia, who had undergone treatment for hepatitis C. Their aim in this article is to report participants' experien…
At the intersection of marginalised identities
Although the levels of injecting drug use among lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) populations are high, we know little about their experiences of injecting drugs or living with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection. The loss of traditional family and cultural ties means connection to community is important to the well-being of LGBT populations. Although some kinds of drug use are normalised within many LGBT communities, injecting drug use…
One size fits all? The discursive framing of cultural difference in health professional accounts of providing cancer care to Aboriginal people
While none of our participants were dismissive of the idea that cultural identity might matter to Aboriginal people, their reliance upon familiar narratives about what that means for cancer care services has the potential to both symbolically and practically exclude the voices of a group of people who may already feel disenfranchised from the mainstream health care system. Critically unpacking the 'taken for granted' assumptions behind how health…
The politics of place(ment)
Staying Safe From Hepatitis C
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a significant global public health problem. In developed countries, 90% of new infections occur among people who inject drugs (PWID), with seroprevalence increasing rapidly among new injectors. Staying Safe is an international, qualitative, social research project, the aim of which is to draw on the experiences of long-term PWID to inform a new generation of HCV prevention strategies. The Sydney project team e…
Disclosing Hepatitis C Infection Within Everyday Contexts
In this paper the authors quantify hepatitis C disclosure outcomes across social contexts and identify the factors associated with widespread disclosure of infection. In a cross-sectional survey of people with hepatitis C ( N = 504) more than half reported receiving a bad reaction from someone following disclosure. Unauthorized disclosure occurred, and many participants had been pressured into disclosing their infection. The factors associated wi…
Multiple stigmas, shame and historical trauma compound the experience of Aboriginal Australians living with hepatitis C
Hepatitis C (HCV) is a stigmatised disease due, in part, to an association with injecting drug use. Aboriginal Australians, a stigmatised group, are over-represented in patterns of HCV infections. We examined the experience of Aboriginal Australians living with HCV using qualitative in-depth interviews, paying particular attention to instances where multiple stigma mechanisms (relating to HCV, injecting drug use and Aboriginal identity) overlappe…
The time of cure
Australia has made considerable progress towards the public-health 'elimination' of the hepatitis C virus. Nonetheless, reinfection remains a key challenge, with little understanding regarding the lived complexities of post-cure life among people who inject drugs. Our analysis examines reinfection through the lens of 'time', a largely overlooked and under-utilised analytical concept within the field of hepatitis C. Drawing on qualitative data fro…
Contextualising the social capital of Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal men in prison
Normalisation of recreational drug use among young people
There is evidence to suggest that illicit drug use is increasingly a ‘normal’ part of the lives of many young people in Australia. The normalisation framework has been applied in limited contexts in Australia, and has not been assessed using longitudinal data. This paper uses cross-sectional periodic data collected at the Sydney Big Day Out music festival between 2006 and 2009 to examine several aspects of normalisation among festival patrons. Ov…
Chronic Illness Experiences, Clinical Markers and Living with Hepatitis C
This study explores the experiences of people with hepatitis C within two models of chronic illness-illness trajectory and shifting perspectives-and examines the effects of clinical markers of disease in relation to perceived health. The findings show some support for both models and suggest how they can be seen as complementary and inter-related. The social consequences of living with hepatitis C, such as potential social limitations and isolati…
An 'Academic Detailing' Intervention To Decrease Exposure to HIV Infection among Health-care Workers
This intervention aimed to decrease health-care workers' experience of automatic pilot (mindless functioning) when performing high risk procedures. An academic detailing visit resulted in a significant increase in compliance with safety guidelines and a decreased incidence of other unsafe practices among 80 health care workers of two hospital units. The effects of mindlessness on health behaviour may be far reaching and the model described in thi…
Developing a Multilevel Understanding of Heart Disease
This study explored the experiences of people hospitalized with heart disease at each of four levels: personal, interpersonal, organizational, and societal. Twenty patients (and 13 family members) who were in the hospital during 1994 with heart problems and who were recruited to a large epidemiologic project were interviewed. The interviews were audiotaped and the transcriptions subjected to qualitative analysis to identify emergent themes at eac…
The cross cultural context of obesity
Multidisciplinary Cross-National Studies
Although multicenter studies proliferate in quantitative health and medical studies, few examples of similar multidisciplinary cross-national qualitative studies exist. In this article, the authors present a commentary on this type of study based on their involvement with two international projects. Issues include maintaining coinvestigators' participation in an international qualitative project with limited funding; difficulties in promoting col…
Needle fictions
The term “needle fixation” is increasingly used by researchers and health professionals to explain a range of drug injecting attitudes and practices. This article employs an innovative discourse analysis approach to consider this notion of needle fixation. Foucault's theories of power, knowledge and discourse are taken up in examining a recent literature review of material considered to support the idea of needle fixation, and in conducting a sec…
Hepatitis C, blood and models of the body
Hepatitis C is a major public health challenge, and efforts to reduce the transmission of hepatitis C among people who inject drugs (IDU) have had limited success. From within a harm minimization perspective, this study sought to examine the models of blood and the body used in health promotion materials designed to encourage safer injecting practice, and aspects of the body emphasized in interviews with 32 IDU. Of particular interest were the un…
Needle and syringe programmes in the local media
Blood and bioidentity
The power of naming
The power of naming: A reply to McBride and Pates." Addiction Research & Theory, 13(4), pp. 403–404
Barriers to use of Needle and Syringe Programmes in a high drug use area of Sydney, New South Wales
Information exchange among injecting drug users
Ethical challenges and responses in harm reduction research
The Experience of Interferon-Based Treatments for Hepatitis C Infection
Clinical trials of interferon-based treatments for hepatitis C infection show decrements in patients' health-related quality of life due to side effects of therapy. The impact of side effects on patients' overall quality of life still remains unclear. To explore this issue, the authors interviewed people living in New South Wales, Australia, who had undergone treatment for hepatitis C. Their aim in this article is to report participants' experien…
You Sort of Switch Off
Risk of blood borne virus among injecting drug users is high and is a significant challenge for public health efforts. Mindlessness/mindfulness theory provides an alternative lens through which to understand social phenomena. Interview transcripts of 32 current and former injectors were explored for evidence of mindless injecting (or automatic behaviour). Mindlessness in injecting practices can be important as opportunities to reduce injecting ri…
Spoiled identity’ in hepatitis C infection
Hepatitis C is a potentially debilitating disease of the liver, the impact of and prognosis for which vary significantly from person to person. Although the health consequences of contracting hepatitis C are extremely diverse, becoming infected with the disease is sometimes experienced in terms of an absolute shift from healthy to sick, clean to contaminated, good to bad. In this paper, we use interview material derived from a study on hepatitis …
Risk practices and other characteristics of injecting drug users who obtain injecting equipment from pharmacies and personal networks
Managing Mental Health Problems in Everyday Life
Initiators
The drugs that dare not speak their name
How can hepatitis C be prevented in the long term
Chronic Illness Experiences, Clinical Markers and Living with Hepatitis C
This study explores the experiences of people with hepatitis C within two models of chronic illness-illness trajectory and shifting perspectives-and examines the effects of clinical markers of disease in relation to perceived health. The findings show some support for both models and suggest how they can be seen as complementary and inter-related. The social consequences of living with hepatitis C, such as potential social limitations and isolati…
Broadening discussions of “safe” in hepatitis C prevention
Pleasure and drugs
Resilient Coping
Social marginalization is associated with poor health outcomes for affected people. However, in a psychosocial study of treatment for hepatitis C infection conducted in Sydney, Australia, participants living in socially disadvantaged circumstances applied adaptive approaches learned from past experiences of drug dependence, living with symptoms of chronic illness, coping with depression and childhood sexual abuse to enable them to cope with sever…
Towards a Global Approach’–An overview of Harm Reduction 2008
Medicine (149 works) · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk (116 works) · Psychology (113 works) · Political science (84 works) · Sociology (79 works) · Psychiatry (76 works) · Hepatitis C virus research (71 works) · HIV/AIDS Research and Interventions (58 works) · Family medicine (56 works) · Hepatitis C (51 works)