5 Ways To Reduce Stigma Around Opioid Use Disorder
Opioid Use Disorder, or OUD, is a chronic, life-long disorder often characterized by the overpowering desire to use opioids, an increased tolerance to the drug, and extreme withdrawal symptoms which follow the stop of opioid use. New data from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics reports that overdose deaths involving opioids increased from an estimated 70,029 in 2020 to 80,816 in 2021.
OUD is one of the most stigmatized health conditions in the United States, despite the increasing number of evidence-based treatment options. Stigma serves as a mark of disgrace, causing challenges for people who are being stigmatized and building barricades on their path to recovery.
People dealing with OUD often face trouble finding or keeping their employment, a lack of educational opportunities, improper housing, and a variety of mental health issues. Stigma prevents individuals with OUD from being able to access treatment resources ultimately contributing to the thousands of lives forgotten and lost to OUD annually.
Here are five ways you can identify, understand, and eliminate stigma in your everyday encounters with drug misuse.
Start Important Conversations
Workplace policies which encourage employees to be honest about their disease allow important conversations to be incorporated into business settings, and help erase a large portion of the stigma employees face at work.
You can use your voice to encourage your workplace to invite individuals who have experienced the effects of OUD first-hand to participate in your conversation and incorporate their insight into your perspective on OUD. During the conversation, use the resources available to you to guide your behavior and language when communicating about OUD and the many factors that contribute to the disease, treatment, and recovery.
Incorporate Person-Centered Language
A study by the Recovery Research Institute on language surrounding OUD shows that language which avoids placing blame, but instead creates a more positive and supportive perspective of individuals with OUD, can serve to reduce stigma. You can do this on a personal basis or in a professional setting by building a word bank to provide alternative, non-stigmatizing language.
For example, the language “a person with substance use disorder” instead of “addict” has been proven to medicalize the disorder and pave the way for inclusion in healthcare which utilizes evidence-based treatments supported by reimbursement from insurance providers. This specific example has also been shown to decrease the blame on individuals with OUD and increase positive public perception of treatments for the disorder.Be Sympathetic, and Use Messages That Prove Recovery Is Possible
One of the most important forms of support that we can provide to individuals and families dealing with OUD are messages emphasizing that successful and effective treatment programs exist. You can send a supportive message by encouraging people to pursue treatment and offering individuals who have been through the process the opportunity to share their first-hand experiences with OUD. By doing so, and supporting someone with OUD, you can help humanize the disease, and make listeners more inclined to support the cause.
Depicting individuals who have dealt with the effects of OUD and who have gone through, or are currently going through effective and healthy treatment can help empower other individuals to make strides in their own journey to acceptance and recovery.
Discuss Societal vs Individual Causes of Addiction
It is vital that we change public and individual perception of OUD to fit a more honest representation of the wide community of people dealing with its effects daily. We can do this by expanding our conversations of OUD to encompass the many external factors that contribute to addiction.
One of the popular misconceptions about OUD is that it is a moraL failing. However, numerous studies of brain imagery have proven that drug addiction changes the chemical composition of the brain, thus leading to severe effects and consequences of addictive behavior. The CDC classified OUD as a chronic disease of the brain.
Another popular misconception is that many people suffering from OUD are incompetent, irresponsible, and primarily at fault for their addiction. In reality, there are a plethora of reasons for why an individual has developed OUD. Often, these individuals are prescribed opioids legally by healthcare professionals, serving as post-op painkillers or following severe injuries. In fact, according to the CDC, the first wave of the opioid epidemic began in the 1990s, following the increased prescribing of opioids.
Addiction is also, inherently, an intersectional issue which feeds on inequality in the United States. Historically, communities with higher poverty and unemployment rates have also had higher rates of retail opioid sales, opioid-related hospitalizations, and drug overdose deaths. Because of this, the fight against OUD runs alongside the fight for social equity.
Share Resources
Through Valley Leadership’s Health Impact Maker program, we have led a group of volunteers who have worked together to create an evidence-based Opioid Toolkit for organizations of any size. Visit oudbiztoolkit.org for resources and templates to make OUD a safe topic to discuss at your office and create an environment where employees can speak up, seek treatment and achieve recovery.
Creating a safe space in which people dealing with OUD can feel heard and understood is vital to the process of eliminating stigma. You can help give them a voice by implementing these five ways to identify, understand, and eliminate stigma in your everyday encounters with drug abuse. Looking for more information on how you can deal with the effects of OUD or support a loved one on their road to recovery? Visit our Opioid Use Disorder Business Toolkit for various resources you, or your employer, can utilize.