Explore the eye-opening contrasts in community stigma perceptions towards opioid use disorder as we delve into the latest findings that distinguish the views of coalition members from those of the general public.
– by The Don
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Differences in perceptions of community stigma towards opioid use disorder between community substance use coalition members and the general public.
Walker et al., J Subst Use Addict Treat 2023
DOI: 10.1016/j.josat.2023.209276
Listen, folks, we’ve got a situation here, and it’s about the opioid crisis, a huge problem, believe me. We did a fantastic study, the best, to look at how people see the stigma around opioid use disorder, OUD – a big issue. We’ve got these incredible community members, working hard on the opioid response, and we’ve got the general public. We wanted to know, do they see things the same way? Do they? We checked, and we checked in both the cities and the countryside, because location, it matters, it really does.
We did these surveys, and they were identical – because we’re fair – in 66 communities before we started our big intervention. It was all very well organized, from November 2019 to April 2020. We had 826 coalition members and 1131 residents – a lot of people, a big sample, the best.
And you know what we found? There’s no difference, none, between the coalition members and the residents when it comes to how they view the community stigma. But – and this is important – when it comes to the good stuff, the evidence-based practices like medication for opioid use disorder, naloxone, and treatment instead of jail, the coalition members, they see more stigma than the residents. They see it, they’re on the front lines.
So, we’ve got similar views on stigma, but when it comes to the solutions, the things that really work to stop people from dying, there’s a gap, a big gap. And we’ve got the numbers to prove it, all registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, because we’re transparent. We’re going to fix this, and it’s going to be great. Identifier: NCT04111939.