Isabelle Boisvert, PWLE (she/her)

Isabelle Boisvert is an expert with lived experience (15+ years of stimulant and opioid addiction). Isabelle undertook several substitution (methadone, suboxone) and Hepatitis C treatments and at least a dozen detox centers, outpatient follow-up services, in-patient therapies and Sober Living. She was hospitalized regularly due to her addiction and overdosed several times. Eventually she became homeless.

Through years of sobriety, she now contributes her expertise to research, education and substance use policy from a harm reduction standpoint. Isabelle understands the daily challenges that arise from addiction, from navigating the health care system and the impact of stigma on people who use drugs. She contributes her expertise to bridge the gap between vulnerable populations and healthcare, research and governmental networks, in order to improve services and policies.

Isabelle consults for various mandates; she works as the Partnerships Lead – Nothing about us, without us! for Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Matters (CRISM), Quebec, as a patient partner at the Centre hospitalier de l'Université de Montréal and as public speaker with lived experience.

Notable past projects:

• Revitalised a 30-year-old research cohort of people who inject drugs by evaluating and revamping recruitment and retention strategies that have proven highly effective and are replicable
• Developed more than 70 strategic partnerships in the Greater Montreal Area for research purposes
• Developed and implemented harm reduction through art initiatives for people with lived or living experience with drug use, sex work, homelessness and mental health
• Developed workshops and tools to destigmatize drug use
• Sat on various committees for harm reduction conferences and was a co-author of a HR Charter in a hospital setting
• Co-wrote various scientific articles for people who use and/or inject drugs

Services offered:

• Recruitment and retention strategy development and evaluation
• Service, program and protocol evaluation (i.e. ensuring that all are inclusive of PWUD or PWID and that lived experience is empowered)
• Community engagement, liaison and strategic partnership development
• Public speaking and training
• Creative peer-led projects for people with lived experience