More people are seeking treatment for drug or alcohol use in the wake of COVID-19.
“We actually have seen an increase in our numbers for people who are in Medication-Assisted Treatment,” said Vince Mercuri of The Open Door in Indiana.
There are various forms of stigma:
Social stigma: when one experiences negative attitudes or behaviors toward people who use drugs.
Structural stigma: when healthcare providers or first responders ignore or do not take people with problematic substance use seriously.
Self-stigma: when people apply to themselves the negative attitudes and beliefs that they have heard from others.
Sesame Street is launching a new webinar series to discuss parental addiction.
Sesame Street in Communities partnered with DisposeRX to create the program for child and family therapists, first responders, community leaders and other service providers.
Opioid drug addiction is recognized as a national health crisis, but doctors and dentists continue to prescribe opioid painkillers at high rates. That’s according to an NPR investigation that tracked prescriptions around the country.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced on July 23 their added requirement of changes labels on opioid pain medicine and medicine to treat opioid use disorder.
The required changes recommend that health care professionals consider prescribing naloxone when they prescribe OUD treatments. The recommendations state that health care professionals consider prescribing naloxone those who are at risk of opioid overdose.
Gordon Smith, Maine’s director of opioid response, said one of the gaps in the state’s response to the opioid crisis is finding people with substance use disorder and getting them into recovery programs. Smith said many details on the rapid response team are being worked on, but he envisions a group that includes social workers who visit the homes of people who overdosed and try to connect them with treatment.
Social distancing, which has led to the loss of support from family and friends, has made worse the sense of isolation those who are addicted already feel because of the unjust stigma associated with this illness.
Treatment and recovery support also have become more difficult to access because of the pandemic.
Emotions, Architecture, Opioids presents a unique opportunity to explore how architecture can function and solve problems on multiple levels: concretely (administering methadone), abstractly (combating stigma), and how a combination of design and concept can become more than the sum of its parts – a Bilbao effect of sorts, but with social undertones.
Despite widespread devastation caused by America’s opioid epidemic, an investigation by NPR found that doctors and other health care providers still prescribe highly addictive pain medications at rates widely considered unsafe.
“There’s no shame in seeking treatment. There’s only a downside in not seeking treatment,” said Dr. Michael Genovese.