‘Beyond the willing & the waiting’ — The role of peer-based approaches in hepatitis C diagnosis & treatment

Abstract This commentary seeks to examine the role, value and importance of peer-based programmatic approaches for ensuring the effective roll-out of the new hepatitis C (HCV) treatments among those most affected — that is, people who inject drugs (PWID). The authors examine recent approaches to HCV treatment in Australia including the provision of universal access to the new DAA regimens regardless of acquisition, genotype or severity of disease. These approaches are contextualised within wider global strategies to support HCV elimination as a public health threat by 2030 (WHO, 2016). Despite the unprecedented opportunity presented by the availability of the new treatments, the fact remains that those most affected by hepatitis C are still largely hidden and disconnected from the health system and are likely to stay that way without targeted education and support. There is a need to for greater investment in new and innovative HCV+ PWID peer education approaches for HCV diagnosis and treatment that add value to existing models of care to improve pathways and support people across their entire treatment journey. Key components include expanding existing peer-based programmes and developing new innovative peer initiatives, supporting the development of the PWID peer workforce, developing new, targeted peer education resources and promoting linkages and partnerships between peer based and HCV treatment service providers in primary and community settings. Our approach to HCV elimination needs to take account of people's broader lives, their vulnerabilities, their life journeys and their potential points of connection, engagement and access. Peer-based organisations and networks provide that unique point of engagement and access for those HCV+ PWID for whom the health system is an unfamiliar even forbidding place or for whom hepatitis C can be but one of many overwhelming issues in the lives.