I think it's a couple of things. Because we operate within a harm reduction framework, there's no value judgment. People are positive or they're negative. They use drugs or they don't. They have sex for money or they don't. It just is.
When they come for testing, first of all, it starts with the outreach we do. We have a lot of harm reduction coordinators going into the community of Toronto offices, sometimes in very formal ways, and testing. But we also have people going out to people who live on the streets, under the bridges, in shelters.
They talk to people about testing. They encourage them to come in. They let them know that it's anonymous, not nominal but anonymous. Often people will come in and have a chat before. They won't even be tested the first time. They'll start to understand what we're about. They get comfortable with the idea. They eventually come back.
They're tested. Sometimes they've tested negative the first time. They come back on a regular basis. They eventually test positive. Sometimes at the first visit they test positive. The folks who do the testing are exceptionally good at counselling. You have to be certified to do this testing and part of it is because of the counselling component. Again, getting them into treatment for us is easy because we have a pathway to the physicians who offer treatments. As far as I know, we have never had anyone test positive who has said no to treatment.
The one exception might be somebody who is uninsured. I don't believe we've tested anyone uninsured for whom we couldn't find treatment. About 20% of our clients do not have OHIP. They are probably the most vulnerable in terms of treatment. A group of community health centres in downtown Toronto are looking at starting a shared clinic to treat those folks, to test and to treat folks who don't have health insurance.