New Publication Examines HEALing Communities Study's Effect on Opioid-Related Stigma

Published on March 12 in The Lancet Regional Health - Americas, "Effects of the Communities that Heal (CTH) intervention on perceived opioid-related community stigma in the HEALing Communities Study: results of a multi-site, community-level, cluster-randomized trial" uses surveys of community coalition members in 66 communities across four states participating in the HEALing Communities Study to assess the impact of the intervention on stigma in those communities.

The publication, with SIG faculty member and Columbia School of Social Work Associate Professor Alissa Davis as the first author, has co-authors from all four HCS sites, including SIG Director and the study's co-PI Nabila El-Bassel.

Davis spoke about the importance of the research, saying, "Our findings suggest that the CTH intervention was effective in decreasing perceived community stigma toward people treated for opioid use disorder (OUD) in 66 rural and urban communities across four diverse states. Implementing the CTH intervention in other communities impacted by the opioid epidemic may help decrease stigma toward people treated for OUD in different settings across the US and potentially globally.”

This is first author Dr. Alissa Davis's second publication looking at stigma within HCS, after being the first author on an International Journal of Drug Policy paper examining stigma in rural and urban settings that was published in December of 2023.