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Ion Allyson, Adjunct Assistant Professor

photo of Allyson Ion

Allyson Ion

Adjunct Assistant Professor

Adjunct Faculty
School of Social Work


Women, ART and the Criminalization of HIV (WATCH HIV)

Biography

My doctoral research focused on the healthcare experiences of women living with HIV during pregnancy and early postpartum. I aim to understand how HIV and obstetrical services are accessed, received, coordinated and delivered during the perinatal period and will integrate the perspectives of women and their healthcare providers. I aim to uncover how healthcare disparities emerge for women living with HIV and are connected to broader social relations, practice frameworks and institutional policies.

WATCH HIV:

Allyson Ion has participated in the HIV movement since 2001 when she began volunteering with local HIV education and support organizations as an undergraduate student at McGill University. Allyson’s decision to volunteer came from a desire to link the biomedical aspects of HIV that she was learning as an undergraduate student in Microbiology & Immunology with the social, emotional, and physical realities of people living with HIV. Since that time, as an ally and community-based researcher, Allyson has contributed to a number of educational, research and advocacy initiatives to advance care and support for people living with HIV. Allyson has worked as a research coordinator and community educator in both clinical and community-based settings focusing on issues of importance to women living with HIV across Canada. Allyson holds a MSc in Health Research Methodology from McMaster University and is currently a PhD Candidate in the School of Social Work at McMaster University. Allyson conducts health services and systems research; her work aims to understand the connection (and often disjuncture) between the experiences that women living with HIV have when navigating health services and how the various health services that women living with HIV rely on are coordinated and organized. Allyson is extremely grateful to have received a Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship to support her doctoral studies.

Education

PhD, Social Work, School of Social Work, McMaster University, 2019

MSc, Health Research Methodology Program (Specialization: Clinical epidemiology), Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, 2010

BSc, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, McGill University, 2005

Research

Journal Articles

Kozak, T., Ion, A., Greene, S. (2020). Reimagining Research with Pregnant Women & Parents Who Consume Cannabis in the Era of Legalization: The Value of Integrating Intersectional Feminist & Participatory Action Approaches. Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. https://doi.org/10.1089/can.2020.0086.

Ion, A., Greene, S., Sinding, C., Grace, D. (2020). Risk and Preventing Perinatal HIV Transmission: Uncovering the Social Organization of Prenatal Care for Women Living with HIV in Ontario, Canada. Health, Risk & Society, 22(2), 125-144. https://doi.org/10.1080/13698575.2020.1760217.

Ion, A. (2019). Keeping secrets, disclosing health information: an institutional ethnography of the social organisation of perinatal care for women living with HIV in Canada. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 22(4), 429-443. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2019.1604996

Sunderji, N., Ion, A., Zhu, A., Perivolaris, A., Rodie, DJ., Mulsant, B. (2019). Challenges in conducting research on collaborative mental health care: a qualitative study. CMAJ Open, 7(2), E405-E414. doi:10.9778/cmajo.20180172.

Khan, S., Ion, A., Alyass, A., Greene, S., Kwaramba, G., Smith, S., Carvalhal, A., Kennedy, V.L., Walmsley, S., Loutfy, M. for the HIV Mothering Study team. (2019). Loneliness and perceived social support in pregnancy and early postpartum of mothers living with HIV in Ontario, Canada. AIDS Care, 31(3), 318-325.

Greene, S., Odhiambo, J., M., Cotnam, J., Dunn, K., Frank, P., Gormley, R., Ion, A., Nicholson, V., Shore, K., Kaida, A. (2019). How Do You Prove That You Told? How Women Living with HIV React and Respond to Learning about Canadian Law that Criminalizes HIV Non-Disclosure. Culture, Health and Sexuality. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2018.1538489.

Ion, A., Greene, J., Masching, R., Poitras, M., Brownlee, P. St. Denys, R., Greene, S. on behalf of the Stable Homes Strong Families research team. (2018). Stable Homes, Strong Families: Re-imagining housing policies and programs for Indigenous peoples living with and affected by HIV and AIDS in Canada. Housing & Society, 45(2), 118-138.

Sunderji, N., Ion, A., Huynh, D., Benassi, P., Ghavam-Rassoul, A., Carvalhal, A. (2018). Advancing integrated care through psychiatric workforce development: A systematic review of educational interventions to train psychiatrists in integrated care. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 63(8), 513-525.

Wagner, A.C., Jaworsky, D., Logie, C.H., Conway, T., Pick, N., Wozniak, D., Rana, J., Tharao, W., Kaida, A., de Pokomandy, A., Ion, A., Chambers, L.A., Webster, K., MacGillivray, J., Loutfy, M. on behalf of the CHIWOS Research Team. (2018). High rates of posttraumatic stress symptoms in women living with HIV in Canada. PLoS ONE 13(7): e0200526. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0200526.

Greene, S., O’Brien-Teengs, D., Dumbrill, G., Ion, A., Beaver, K., Vaccaro, M. (2018). It’s Better Late than Never: A community-based HIV research and training response to supporting mothers living with HIV who have child welfare involvement. Journal of Law and Social Policy. 28(1), 61-80.

Ion, A., Sunderji, N., Jansz, G., Ghavam-Rassoul, A. (2017). Implementing integrated mental health care in ‘real-world’ primary care settings: what matters to health care providers and clients? Families, Systems & Health, 35(3), 271-282.

Greene, S., Ion, A., Kwaramba, G., Lazarus, L., Loutfy, M. (2017). Surviving Surveillance: How Pregnant Women and Mothers Living with HIV Respond to Medical and Social Surveillance. Qualitative Health Research, 27(14): 2088-2099. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732317725219.

Lytvyn, L., Siemieniuk, R.A., Dilmitis, S., Ion, A., Chang, Y., Malgorzata, M.B., Manja, V., Mirza, R., Rodriguez, R., Mir, H., Banfield, L., Vandvik, P.O., Bewley, S. (2017). Values and preferences of women living with HIV who are pregnant, postpartum, or considering pregnancy on choice of antiretroviral therapy during pregnancy [Rapid Review]. BMJ Open, 7(9), e019023. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2017-019023.

Sunderji, N., Ion, A., Ghavam-Rassoul, A., and Abate, A. (2017) Evaluating the implementation of integrated mental health care: A systematic review to guide the development of quality measures. Psychiatric Services, 68(9), 891-898. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ps.201600464

Ion, A., Wagner, A. C., Greene, S., & Loutfy, M. R. (2017). HIV-related stigma in pregnancy and early postpartum of mothers living with HIV in Ontario, Canada. AIDS Care, 29(2), 137-144.

Ion, A. (2016). Examining Privacy Regulatory Frameworks in Canada in the Context of HIV. Healthcare Policy, 11(4), 82-92.

Ion, A., Greene, S., Mellor, K., Kwaramba, G., Smith, S., Barry, F., Kennedy, V.L., Carvalhal, A., Loutfy, M. (2016). Perinatal care experiences of mothers living with HIV in Ontario, Canada. Journal of HIV/AIDS & Social Services, 15(2), 180-201.

Greene, S., Ion, A., Kwaramba, G., Smith, S., & Loutfy, M. R. (2016). “Why are you pregnant? What were you thinking?”: How women navigate experiences of HIV-related stigma in medical settings during pregnancy and birth. Social work in health care, 55(2), 161-179.

Greene, S., Ion, A., Beaver, K., Nicholson, V., Derry, R., Loutfy, M.R. (2015). “Who is there to support our women?”: Positive Aboriginal Women (PAW) speak out about health and social care experiences and needs during pregnancy, birth and motherhood. Canadian Journal of Aboriginal Community-Based HIV/AIDS Research, 7, 3-26. Available at http://www.caan.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/PAW-Talking-Back_EN.pdf.

Ion, A., & Elston, D. (2015). Examining the health care experiences of women living with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and perceived HIV-related stigma. Women's Health Issues, 25(4), 410-419.

Greene, S., Ion, A., Kwaramba, G., Mwalwanda, M., Caswell, J., Guzha, E., & Carvalhal, A. (2015). “Trust Me, It’s Different”: Experiences of Peer Case Management of Women Living with HIV in Ontario, Canada. Canadian Social Work Review, 32(1-2), 73-93.

Greene, S., Ion, A., Elston, D., Kwaramba, G., Smith, S., Carvalhal, A., & Loutfy, M. (2015). “Why Aren't You Breastfeeding?”: How Mothers Living With HIV Talk About Infant Feeding in a “Breast Is Best” World. Health care for women international, 36(8), 883-901.

Greene, S., O’Brien-Teengs, D., Whitebird, W., Ion, A. (2014). How HIV-Positive Aboriginal Women (PAW) Talk About Their Mothering Experiences with Child and Family Services in Ontario. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 8(5), 467-490.

Ion, A., Greene, S., MacMillan, H., & Smieja, M. (2013). HSV-2/HIV co-infection, health-related quality of life and identity in women. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 22(3), 123-133.

Ion, A., Cai, W., Elston, D., Pullenayegum, E., Smaill, F., & Smieja, M. (2011). A comparison of the MOS-HIV and SF-12v2 for measuring health-related quality of life of men and women living with HIV/AIDS. AIDS research and therapy, 8(1), 5.

Ndlovu U, Ion A, Carvalhal (2010). “My children & my home": The most recent and challenging stressors of HIV positive women. Arch Women Ment Health, 13, 215-222.

Book Chapters

Greene, S., O’Brien-Teengs, D., Dumbrill, G., Ion, A., Beaver, K., Porter, M., & Desbiens, M. (2016). A community-based research approach to developing an HIV education and training module for child and family service workers in Ontario. In H. Montgomery, D. Badry, D. Fuchs, & D. Kikulwe (Eds.), Transforming Child Welfare: Interdisciplinary Practices, Field Education, and Research (pp. 163–185). Regina, SK: University of Regina Press.

Greene, S., Ion, A., Elston, D., Kwaramba, G., Smith, S., Loutfy, M. (2015). (M)othering with HIV: Resisting and Reconstructing Experiences of Health and Social Surveillance. In B. Hogeveen & J. Minaker (Eds.), Criminalized Mothers, Criminalizing Motherhood (pp.231-263). Toronto, ON: Demeter Press.