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1 – 10 of 569The purpose of this paper is to aid employers and HR professionals in addressing the opioid epidemic, by examining the economic burden of addiction and its impact on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to aid employers and HR professionals in addressing the opioid epidemic, by examining the economic burden of addiction and its impact on the workplace, and it presents solutions based on a clinical approach to treatment and prevention of substance abuse.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper undertakes a review of current opioid addiction statistics provided by various professional organizations and the US government to assess the scope of opioid addiction and its effects on the US economy. Solutions to the growing issue of addiction are based on the author’s clinical experience within the pharmacy benefits space.
Findings
Opioid addiction costs employers an estimated $18bn annually and incurred $1tn in expenses overall in the US between the years 2001 and 2017. These figures account for factors such as medical expenses, lost productivity and loss of life. The opioid crisis has led to a significant decline in workforce participation (20 per cent among men and 25 per cent among women), making it difficult for employers to find and keep qualified workers.
Originality/value
In this article, the author discusses means by which employers and HR professionals can protect and retain employees in the face of a national epidemic of addiction to prescription opioids. Solutions encompass not only how to identify and address existing substance abuse, but how to prevent addiction through employee education and close clinical coordination with partners such as an organization’s pharmacy benefits manager.
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The purpose of this study is to highlight the overshadowing of the opioid crisis due to Covid-19 pandemic. Opioids are affecting increasing numbers as the current opioid overdose…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to highlight the overshadowing of the opioid crisis due to Covid-19 pandemic. Opioids are affecting increasing numbers as the current opioid overdose death rate is increasing to 209 per day. While there appears light shining on the end of the Covid-19 pandemic with the advent of a fourth vaccine, there is no such light for the opioid epidemic. Based on a sample of 603 relatively educated adults in NE Ohio, the health harm caused by both crises, prescribing physician blaming, high levels of income loss and physical and emotional burdens shared by the respondents were obvious and striking.
Design/methodology/approach
Using Bertram et al. (2014) theory of the blame model, the number of results concerning gender and personally involvement of friends and family members, including men empathy increased with greater knowledge of numbers of addicted opioid users in their personal contracts.
Findings
Unfortunately, many women had to remain home taking care of children and elderly loved ones at greater percentages than their male counterparts may account for less empathy as such addicted users have become a burden to economically impaired families. This tendency for placing blame for circumstances with twin crises appears to follow a relatively predictable path as modeled by Bertram et al. (2014) (i.e. denial, justification and excuse).
Originality/value
These are few studies that are studying the amplification effects of the Covid-19 pandemic context on the current opioid crisis.
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Sabir Zaman, Shahid Irfan, Basharat Hussain, Muhammad Tahir Nawaz and Shazia Khalid
There is increased social discussion of the emerging issues of opioid use, health and well-being of young adults within contemporary Asian society. The purpose of this study is to…
Abstract
Purpose
There is increased social discussion of the emerging issues of opioid use, health and well-being of young adults within contemporary Asian society. The purpose of this study is to contribute new knowledge of opioid-using young adults through ethnographic perspectives of the five main cultures of Pakistan. Furthermore, it tried to explore the values of opioid users.
Design/methodology/approach
It is a qualitative study. Semi-structured interview and observation techniques were used to gain the participants’ information, in a non-judgmental environment. Observation and life focus history interview methodology were used for data collection. The sample consisted of 18 male opioid users (approximately three from each area including: Punjab, Khyber Pakhtoon Khah, Balochistan, Sindh, Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir). An interview script was used in interviews after written informed consent. After the detailed interview and observation of non-verbal behaviours, the researchers analysed the data by using the content analysis of qualitative method.
Findings
The result showed that poor relationships, conflicts over property, lack of social support and family problems increased with the use of opioids by individuals. The individual’s mental health, such as hopelessness, curiosity, mistrust and lack of interest in social activities, was the major cause of opioid addiction. Moreover, peer influences and friends may also have played contributing roles in opioids use among men.
Research limitations/implications
The current study added to the understanding of the relationship of different environmental, behavioural and social factors involved in developing opioid use among young individuals. The homogeneity of the sample may have weakened the generalisability of the findings of the study as all participants in the study were male.
Practical implications
Clinicians and allied professionals have shown a great interest in early intervention with opioid users. At the same time, there is a lack of qualitative studies exploring the lived experiences of young opioid users. That is why this study was done, to empower counsellors.
Social implications
Opioids, including heroin, have strong addictive tendencies. They are easily available, particularly in unplanned urban areas of Pakistan. The present study tried to understand the lived experiences and beliefs of opioid users belonging to different cultures of Pakistan.
Originality/value
At the same time, there is a lack of qualitative studies exploring the lived experiences of adult opioid users. Therefore, this study presented 18 interview-based facts from the opioid users belonging to different areas of Pakistan residing in capital of Pakistan. The content of these vignettes was examined in the context of an ethnographic perspective, as it has a strong connection and contribution to drug abuse.
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Helena Hansen and Samuel K. Roberts
Purpose – To compare the histories of two opioid medications that are pharmacologically similar but subject to contrasting regulations in their use in treatment of opiate…
Abstract
Purpose – To compare the histories of two opioid medications that are pharmacologically similar but subject to contrasting regulations in their use in treatment of opiate dependence in the United States – methadone and buprenorphine – in order to analyze the role of racial imagery and racial politics in the legalization and clinical promotion of their use.
Methodology/approach – Historical methods of archival analysis of published articles and unpublished governmental records were used in researching methadone. Ethnographic methods of participant observation and semistructured interviews were used in researching buprenorphine.
Findings – Contrasting uses of racial imagery played a major role in shaping the current regulatory differences between the two treatments. The association of methadone with black and Latino heroin users has contributed to its increased federal regulation, while the association of buprenorphine with white, middle class prescription opioid users enabled its use in deregulated private physicians’ offices.
Originality/value of paper – Advocates of biomedicalization of behaviors and conditions thought of as social or moral, such as addiction, argue that biomedicalization reduces the stigma of the condition and imply that, in turn, it also reduces the racial inequalities associated with the condition. This study of the biomedicalization of treatment for opioid dependence indicates that the very process of biomedicalization depended on heightened racial imagery associated with each treatment and ultimately intensified, rather than reduced, the stigma of addiction for black and Latino low-income patients.
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Bharat Mehra and Baheya S. Jaber
The acceleration of Opioid deaths over the last decade has made it a serious national public health crisis. Alabama has not been immune to this epidemic, with dramatically…
Abstract
The acceleration of Opioid deaths over the last decade has made it a serious national public health crisis. Alabama has not been immune to this epidemic, with dramatically increased age-adjusted drug overdose death rates. These increases have occurred in a state with limited resources for Opioid health prevention, treatment, and recovery services. This chapter introduces the term “o-CHIL” in order to better understand the multi-factorial layers of intertwining health injustices (in the plural) experienced in Alabama’s communities and their embedded public libraries. It highlights the complexities in Opioid consumer health information literacies, the culturally situated dimensions of the Opioid crisis in Alabama, and the uniquely relevant consumer health literacies in its public libraries. Findings are based on an empirical assessment of representative information support services identified in February 2020 on the websites of the 230 public libraries listed as members of the Alabama Public Library Service. The exploratory study applies website content analysis to identify seven examples of information offerings and to class offerings into three categories: (1) information sources (collections, resources); (2) information policy and planning (assigned Opioid-related role, strategic representation); and (3) connections (internal, external, news and events). The discussion potentially provides new directions, approaches, and opportunities to build collaborations of sharing within Alabama’s network of public libraries and beyond for them to better serve their local and regional communities impacted by the Opioid crisis.
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Workforce development in rural communities to address a surge in opioid addiction and overdose related hospitalizations has been an unaddressed issue in the USA. This study aims…
Abstract
Purpose
Workforce development in rural communities to address a surge in opioid addiction and overdose related hospitalizations has been an unaddressed issue in the USA. This study aims to present an integrated, trauma-informed, behavioral workforce development initiative in a midwestern rural setting in the USA.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a mixed method, two-phased study: the first phase tracked and analyzed two focus group conferences involving experts (n = 6) and professionals (n = 8) to develop a training protocol; the second phase provided a training (n = 101), based on the protocol to future professionals and compared competencies before and after the implementation of the training.
Findings
There is a need of a trauma integrated approach in providing interprofessional training connecting health-care workers in rural communities to address the current opioid crisis to bring about cohesion among integrated and interdisciplinary teams. Workforce building will need to implement best practices not only among medical providers but among community mental health practitioners in rural areas.
Originality/value
This is a unique trauma-informed workforce development initiative in a rural community. Such studies are extremely limited and almost non-existent. Further initiatives need to be taken in this field to identify unique differences within communities that may hinder implementation.
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In this chapter, I explore connections between institutional and personal narratives of treating chronic pain with prescription opioids.
Abstract
Purpose
In this chapter, I explore connections between institutional and personal narratives of treating chronic pain with prescription opioids.
Methods/Approach
I explore how stories told in a Food and Drug Administration public hearing construct moral boundaries around different kinds of pain patients and justify a label change intended to reduce prescribing of opioids to people with chronic pain. I then examine how personal narratives, acquired through interviews with chronic pain patients who rely on opioids, both conform to and challenge the institutional narratives told in the hearing and work as subversive stories. Additionally, I consider how institutional and personal narratives of chronic pain shed light on intersections and conflicts between the medical and social models of disability.
Findings
The “invisible disability” experience of chronic pain highlights the complex entanglement between the struggles associated with impairment emphasized by the medical model, and those stemming from cultural and structural barriers emphasized by the social model.
Implications/Value
I conclude with a discussion of the methodological value of examining narratives such as those of chronic pain and disability at multiple levels of social life. This study contributes to efforts to broaden disability discourse to include experiences such as chronic pain that are poorly represented in disability scholarship.
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Linsey Ann Belisle and Elia Del Carmen Solano-Patricio
As prison drug use continues to be a concern worldwide, harm reduction practices serve as an alternative approach to traditional abstinence-only or punishment-oriented methods to…
Abstract
Purpose
As prison drug use continues to be a concern worldwide, harm reduction practices serve as an alternative approach to traditional abstinence-only or punishment-oriented methods to address substance use behind bars. The purpose of this study is to present a summary of research surrounding prison-based harm reduction programs.
Design/methodology/approach
This narrative review of the international literature summarizes the harms associated with prison drug use followed by an overview of the literature surrounding three prison-based harm reduction practices: opioid agonist therapy, syringe exchange programs and naloxone distribution.
Findings
A collection of international research has found that these three harm reduction programs are safe and feasible to implement in carceral settings. Additionally, these services can effectively reduce some of the harms associated with prison drug use (e.g. risky injection practices, needle sharing, fatal overdoses, etc.). However, these practices are underused in correctional settings in comparison to their use in the community.
Originality/value
Various policy recommendations are made based on the available literature, including addressing ethical concerns surrounding prison populations’ rights to the same standard of health care and services available in the community. By taking a public health approach to prison drug use, harm reduction practices can provide a marginalized, high-risk population of incarcerated individuals with life-saving services rather than punitive, punishment-oriented measures.
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Dany Khalaf, Maryse Hayek, Jules-Joel Bakhos and Fadi Abou-Mrad
Opioid substitution treatment (OST), such as Buprenorphine, has become a well-established evidence-based approach for the treatment of inmates with opioid use disorder (OUD) in…
Abstract
Purpose
Opioid substitution treatment (OST), such as Buprenorphine, has become a well-established evidence-based approach for the treatment of inmates with opioid use disorder (OUD) in most of the developed world. However, its application in Lebanon remains mainly as a community-based intervention. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the need of its implementation within the Lebanese correctional system.
Design/methodology/approach
The work is a pilot cross-sectional study that compares two groups: 30 male adult prisoners with OUD convictions receiving symptomatic treatment and 30 male adult community patients with OUD receiving Buprenorphine. The objective was to measure the difference in the patients’ general perception and satisfaction of the treatments available. OUD was diagnosed using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 5th Edition criteria and the level of satisfaction was measured by “Treatment Perceptions Questionnaire (TPQ).”
Findings
The prison group reported significantly lower satisfaction when compared to the community group (total TPQ mean scores: M=34.73, SD =4.12 and M=16.67, SD =4.78, respectively, with t (56.76) =15.68, p=0.000). Furthermore, age, marital status, education level and elapsed time in treatment had no significant interactions with the total TPQ score.
Originality/value
The major principles of the ethics of care and evidence-based safe practices will be proposed for the introduction of Buprenorphine to Lebanese prisons. This work provides an opportunity for the expansion of the Lebanese OST program and consequently other countries in the region could benefit from this experience.
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The model of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) in the United States has (for better or for worse) influenced the development of MMT elsewhere. This paper sheds light on the…
Abstract
The model of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) in the United States has (for better or for worse) influenced the development of MMT elsewhere. This paper sheds light on the origins and progression of MMT and its application today. This perspective may prove helpful to persons and agencies attempting to develop MMT or whose MMT programmes are being subject to ever‐increasing restrictions. The demographics, social and economic risk factors, impact of poly‐substance use and co‐occurring psychiatric disorders (dual diagnosis), and existing evidence supporting dosing and therapeutic interventions in MMT are reviewed and illustrated with a case study.
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