This Webinar examines how American healthcare is impacted by structural racism, the resulting treatment disparities individuals of color experience for opioid use disorder, and what social justice strategies we can employ to achieve equitable healthcare and substance use treatment for communities of color. This Webinar was split into three recordings, the first recording is Zinzi Bailey's presentation, the second is Dr. Pooja Lagisetty and Yvonka Hall, and the third is the group discussion.
Trauma is an established driver for substance use disorder. This Webinar draws connections between the traumas of interpersonal and structural racism, mental health problems, and substance use disorders. It will provide models for trauma-informed care across a range of disciplines, including pediatrics, psychology, psychiatry, and substance use treatment.
In the United States, Black mothers die during pregnancy and childbirth at three times the rate of white mothers. Cuyahoga County has had one of the worst rates of infant mortality in the country for five decades, with Black infants dying at seven times the rate of white infants. This Webinar is comprised of two sessions: first, a keynote address on Black maternal and infant mortality by Dr. Arthur James of First Year Cleveland, followed by a panel of Black birth workers and community health experts from across the country who will be discussing how we can achieve equity for Black mothers and infants.
Black and Latinx heroin use has historically been stigmatized as a moral failing and continues to be prosecuted and sentenced punitively. White opioid use – in marked contrast - has been decriminalized and treated as a biomedical disease. While Black and Latinx individuals use drugs at the same rate as whites, they are 6-10 times as likely to be incarcerated for drug use. Drawing on the personal experience of individuals working in the criminal justice system, this Webinar examines how racism impacts prosecution, sentencing and access to treatment for minorities in the prison system and what policy reforms are necessary to break the cycle of incarceration for substance use.
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the impact of structural racism on communities of color and their barriers to health care. The trauma and isolation of COVID-19 have also resulted in a spike in opioid overdoses across the country, overdoses which are disproportionately affecting communities of color. This Webinar examines the intersection of three public health crises: racism, the opioid epidemic, and COVID-19. Drs. Utibe Essien, Monica Webb Hooper and Miriam Komaromy discuss their work to achieve equity and social justice within healthcare generally and substance use treatment specifically.
The national narrative of the opioid crisis is that it is primarily affecting white suburban and rural communities. In fact, Black and Latinx deaths from opioids are on the rise across the country and eclipse white deaths in several states. Kathie Kane Willis, Dennis Cauchon, and Sheila Vakharia examine data from across Ohio and the US regarding opioid mortality and treatment disparity.
Black and Latinx transgender individuals face some of the greatest healthcare disparities while at the same time suffering acutely from a range of social determinants of health. Join us for a roundtable discussion with Devinity Jones, Dr. Naazneen Diwan, Dr. Laura Mintz and Dr. Shubham Gupta on how organizations across Cuyahoga County are intervening to address Black and Latinx transgender health disparities.
Professor Helena Hansen's keynote address explores the contrast between American conceptions of white drug use as a biomedical problem requiring pharmacological intervention and minority drug use as a moral failing and societal danger that can only be addressed through incarceration. Learn about how neither model addresses the structural and systemic factors that lead to substance use and how community health initiatives are the way forward.
Learn how Latinx communities are being impacted by the opioid crisis and how two organizations - Yale University's Project IMANI in New Haven, CT and Casa Esperanza in Boston, MA - are responding with innovative, community health-based solutions to substance use and its attendant traumas.
Abstinence-only responses to substance use are prioritized in the United States despite both their poor success rate and the widespread acceptance of the biomedical model of opioid use disorder, which recognizes that addiction is a disease that requires medical treatment and not a moral failing. Medication Assisted Treatments (MAT), including methadone and Bupenorphrine, are evidence-based treatments for opioid use disorder that save lives. Dr. Ayana Jordan, Dr. Allison Schlosser and Dr. Tedd Parran discuss the specific challenges minoritized populations face accessing harm reduction and MAT, and the policy reforms that can help.
This roundtable of local, national and international speakers addresses innovative, evidence-based ideas for policy change in healthcare aimed at creating equity more broadly and increasing access to effective substance use treatment specifically. Speakers include Jessica McCullough, Dr. Marie Jauffret Roustide, and Professor Darcy Freedman.
This roundtable addresses innovative, evidence-based appproaches for decreasing incarceration and increasing prevention and treatment for substance use disorders across the Cuyahoga County criminal justice system. Speakers include the Honorable Judge Lauren Moore, the Honorable Judge Tonya Jones, Lisa Fair and Rickey Lewis.