Project Description Narrative:
The rising frequency of people suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD) poses a significant public health challenge, resulting in over 80,000 overdose deaths in the United States in 2021. Milwaukee County has emerged as a focal point, ranking eighth in urban overdose death rates in the U.S., with a notable disproportionality among Black Americans. While medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) is established as the gold standard treatment for OUD, only 22% of individuals with OUD have accessed such medication, with a pronounced underrepresentation of Black Americans.
Though efforts to enhance MOUD availability have shown promise, numerous physicians specializing in MOUD do not meet their patient capacity. This discrepancy may be due to various barriers, including financial constraints, stringent treatment initiation requirements, and pervasive societal stigma surrounding opioid use.
However, limited awareness and negative attitudes towards MOUD treatment itself, compounded by distrust in the medical system, contribute significantly to dissuading individuals, especially from racial and ethnic minorities, from demanding existing MOUD services.
This project aims to address these gaps by utilizing close relationships to reach Black people with OUD in need of MOUD treatment services. The project's objective is to develop and implement a strategy that uses friendship networks to reach Black people with OUD who are not in treatment and distribute messages that enhance knowledge, reduce MOUD stigma, and provide support to navigate the MOUD treatment system in Milwaukee County.
A program that has helped to reach hard-to-access communities to promote other healthier behaviors will be adapted and implemented in collaboration with Wisconsin Community Services (WCS), a local nonprofit human services organization that provides access to services for individuals facing challenges with behavioral health needs. Through its peer specialist program, WCS assists individuals who are recovering from opioid-related events in emergency rooms or residential programs.
The proposed strategy will expand WCS's peer support program beyond healthcare settings, targeting Black people with OUD in the community and engaging them in MOUD, hopefully before the occurrence of severe opioid-related events.
Key aims of the project are to understand awareness of and views toward MOUD among Black people with OUD. The project will also explore other programs led by peers in the county to learn about their strengths and challenges. This information will help the project team understand how a strategy can be implemented within the programs of WCS and if both the providers and the community feel comfortable and view the strategy as appropriate to their values and goals.
The research will unfold over two years, involving a community advisory board (CAB), focus groups of Black people with OUD, and peer specialists who will help develop and implement the intervention. Through feedback from the participants and peer specialists and with input from the CAB, the researchers aspire to create a replicable model for wider adoption, fostering a more inclusive and supportive environment for individuals grappling with OUD to access necessary services.