As the world struggled with COVID-19 during 2020, revelations emerged about the pandemic's impact on people with addictions and substance use disorder, who are at particular risk of being affected by interruptions in medical care and challenges associated with isolation and social distancing. IU researchers, most associated with the IU Responding to the Addictions Crisis Grand Challenge, were ready to help.
Helping Hoosiers fight addictions and substance use disorder
From lab-based neurobiological research to school-based educational programs; from analyses of policy and law to data-gathering and visualization; from economic analysis to workforce training, IU's Responding to the Addictions Crisis Grand Challenge continues to reach important milestones in their work to improve the lives of those grappling with addictions:
hundredsof Indiana teens involved in the criminal justice system screened for substance use issues and referred to treatment through the Improving the Substance Use Care Cascade in the Juvenile Justice System project
160Indianapolis-area students at risk for developing substance use disorders enrolled in school-based therapy that teaches teens how to deal with strong emotions and manage stress
145women enrolled in the CARE Plus program connecting pregnant women and young mothers who have substance use issues to community health workers and other resources
93patients helped to better manage pain by the Comprehensive Pain Assessment Clinic
34students trained by the Comprehensive Pain Assessment Clinic
8Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) hubs launched, providing resources and training to healthcare teams and providers
IU's Responding to the Addictions Crisis Grand Challenge teams also:
- created certificate and master's degree programs in Addictions Counseling that will help students entering the mental health professions recognize and respond to addiction
- launched a group counseling program for college-aged people who identify as being in recovery for a substance use disorder
Understanding and reducing stigma
IU researchers are exploring the complexities of addictions and substance use disorder broadly, including studying the public stigma around opioid addiction, which discourages people with opioid use disorder from seeking care and treatment.
An IU study found that a majority of Americans are more willing to coerce people with opioid use disorder into treatment and perceive them as less capable and likely to be violent toward others. Nearly half of Americans are unwilling to have a person with opioid use disorder move next door to them, and 73 percent of Americans are unwilling to have such a person marry into their family, while 76 percent would not want to work closely with such a person on the job.
This data offers important insights into how to approach the enduring problem of public stigma around opioid addiction, including replacing a focus on addiction as a brain disease with a focus on sharing stories of people with opioid use disorder who are fighting against a serious condition and have real prospect for remission.
The study was conducted by Brea Perry, professor of sociology at IU Bloomington, and Bernice Pescosolido, Distinguished Professor of sociology at IU Bloomington.
In this together
To amplify powerful personal stories, IU's Responding to the Addictions Crisis Grand Challenge created the In This Together video project to advance conversation around addiction, treatment and recovery, harm prevention, and hope. The four-part series has been viewed during community panel discussions and, supported by funding from the CARES Act, the videos are being incorporated into a continuing education course aimed at helping individuals, health professionals, and communities understand substance use disorder and reduce the stigma associated with it.
The Responding to the Addictions Crisis Grand Challenge partnered with the Indianapolis Coalition for Patient Safety to create the series.
Description of the video:
Music Begins
[Video: IU Grand Challenge Responding to the Addictions Crisis logo appears]
[Video: B-roll aerial shot of Paoli. View of a trailer park. Josh Graves driving a track. A view of a road. Josh Graves driving a truck. A view of the road. Josh Graves driving a truck. A view of the Safe Haven sign outside the building. Josh Grave walking into the building.]
Josh Graves Speaks in Voiceover: “Every time somebody comes to me that's needing help, it instantly takes me back to that day when I was in that person's shoes. I never remember getting educated about drugs when I was going to school here. That stuff’s so power, that a kid can just go to high school party do it one time and get addicted to it. I was in active addiction for over 18 years. Alcohol, drugs, anything mind-altering, if it made me feel good, I wanted more. And there's a few times it nearly killed me. I had to go through enough pain to where I finally raised my hand and said enough’s enough. I need to go get help.
[Video: B-roll aerial shot of Paoli. View of a trailer park. Josh Graves driving a track. A view of a road. Josh Graves driving a truck. A view of the road. Josh Graves driving a truck. A view of the Safe Haven sign outside the building. Josh Grave walking into the building.]
Brittany Stout speaks in voiceover: “We have a generalized substance abuse problem in Orange County.”
[Video: Brittany Stout sitting in a church, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Brittany Stout speaks: “We have an opioid epidemic, but we also have methamphetamine epidemic. We have a huge level of alcoholism.”
[Video: B-roll aerial shot of Paoli. View of houses. View of needles and powder on a table. Bottle of pills on a table. A man and a woman hug outside. Aerial view of Paoli.]
Brittany Stout speaks in voiceover: “I mean the epidemics made national news. You're waiting for somebody else to come fix the problem. And we realized that if we sit back and do nothing, then we're going to lose an entire generation. And for a small town like this, if we lose an entire generation,”
[Video: Brittany Stout sitting in a church, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Brittany Stout speaks: “We lose the whole town.”
[Video: B-roll of Josh Graves working at a desk inside Safe Haven.]
Josh Graves speaks in voiceover: “I went to treatment and,”
[Video: Josh Graves in a church, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Josh Graves speaks: “when I came back to this area after treatment”
[Video: B-roll of a sign that reads Safe Haven Recovery Engagement Center hanging on the wall. Josh Graves sits a computer at a desk. Josh Graves makes coffee.]
Josh Graves speaks in voiceover: “and was realizing there really wasn't much around for resources and getting to meetings. It got in my head that some more things needed to happen. That's the beauty of recovery”
[Video: Josh Graves in a church, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Josh Graves speaks: “is once I found out how to fix me, then I was able to carry that message”
[Video: B-roll of Josh Graves sitting at a table talking to a man.]
Josh Graves speaks in voiceover: and help others”.
[Video: B-roll of the outside of the Safe Haven Building.]
Brittany Stout speaks in voiceover: “Safe Haven Recovery Engagement Center is a basically a hub of resources for Orange County.”
[Video: Brittany Stout sitting in a church, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Brittany Stout speaks: “We are the go-to spot for anybody in Orange County that needs help with substance abuse.”
[Video: B-roll of Brittany Stout talking to someone at a table inside Safe Haven. Josh Graves driving his truck. A truck going down the road.]
Brittany Stout speaks in voiceover: “We offer a host of services. Our main one is connection to resources. Getting people to treatment centers, driving them there if we need to,”
[Video: Brittany Stout sitting in a church, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Brittany Stout speaks: “housing, food, clothing, jobs, education.”
[Video: B-roll of Brittany Stout talking to people inside Safe Haven. Josh Graves driving his truck. A truck going down the road.]
Brittany Stout speaks in voiceover: “We host events.”
[Video: Brittany Stout sitting in a church, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Brittany Stout speaks: “Safe Haven was born out of a conversation on my mom's couch a couple of weeks after my younger brother Dakota passed away of an overdose.”
[Video: B-roll of Brittany Stout holding up a picture on a necklace of her brother Dakota Stout. Brittany Stout looks down. A large picture of Dakota Stout.]
Brittany Stout speaks in voiceover: “He was an addict for about eight years. If you ever talked to a family member of somebody that's in active addiction. They always say you dread the phone call. It's just as dreadful as what you think it is because he’s only 25.”
[Video: Brittany Stout sitting in a church, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Brittany Stout speaks: “He wasn't supposed to die that way. He was supposed to beat it.”
[Video: B-roll of Brittany Stout getting a hug from her son.]
Brittany Stout speaks in voiceover: “I'm a nurse practitioner by trade,”
[Video: Brittany Stout sitting in a church, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Brittany Stout speaks: “I have a master's level degree in health care. And I was not taught anything about substance use or the treatment of it or the recovery options.”
[Video: B-roll of aerial shot of Paoli.]
Brittany Stout speaks in voiceover: “I was more angry at our social system and how the county didn't have the resources. It's up to us to make our change for our community because no one's going to do it for us.”
[Video: Sam Quinones sitting in a studio, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Sam Quinones speaks: “Strangely enough, this epidemic is bringing together people in community”
[Video: B-roll of a group of people standing on the street, talking. Houses in a neighborhood and cars on the street.]
Sam Quinones speaks in voiceover: “that we have essentially destroyed for many years. This the catastrophic, damaging, horrific epidemic.”
[Video: Sam Quinones sitting in a studio, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Sam Quinones speaks: “But the byproduct can be beautiful.”
[Video: B-roll of an aerial shot of Indianapolis. Two women sitting in the grass, talking. Students walking on the IUPUI campus. Aerial view of Indianapolis.]
Sam Quinones speaks in voiceover: “But it's really about strong communities, alliances and every university, every church, all of that needs to be leveraged.”
[Video: Jennifer Sullivan sitting in her office, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Jennifer Sullivan speaks: “Not every individual needs to be a physician.”
[Video: B-roll of Jennifer Sullivan sitting at the computer in her office. Close up of Jennifer Sullivan’s diploma hanging on the wall. Jennifer Sullivan sitting at her desk. Jennifer Sullivan sitting at a table speaking to another woman.]
Jennifer Sullivan speaks in voiceover: “Not every individual can be a social worker. But every individual can understand the power of language in the way that we treat our fellow citizens.”
[Video: Jennifer Sullivan sitting in her office, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Jennifer Sullivan speaks: “That if we have that just extra degree of patience and compassion”
[Video: B-roll of a child drawing on a piece of paper. A man sits alone on a bench, looking at a lake. A woman hugs another person.]
Jennifer Sullivan speaks in voiceover: “and welcoming for individuals who are struggling every day that we might find ourselves in a different place than we were before.”
[Video: Jennifer Sullivan sitting in her office, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Jennifer Sullivan speaks: “The best thing that we can offer as Hoosiers to others is the promise of hope. Indiana has started to turn the corner. We actually have seen a stabilization and, in some areas, even a decrease in overdose deaths. That's extraordinary.”
[Video: B-roll of people walking around inside of a church. Brittany Stout carries a white box outside. Brittany Stout hands out purple envelopes to a group of people. Josh Graves speaks to a group of people. People stand in a circle]
Josh Graves speaks in voiceover: “We're gonna hid outside, will get in a circle, will go around, and you could say who you’re releasing it for. This is our second annual overdose awareness. This year we went with the butterfly.”
Brittany Stout speaks in voiceover: “We’re a part of the Indiana addiction issues coalition we’re on the Indiana Recovery Network Advisory Board. We are the only recovery-oriented organization in the county. Because we’re it everybody gravitates towards us. The camaraderie that comes with people in recovery that have been through their own hell and come out on the other side is amazing to be around.”
[Video: Brittany Stout sitting in a church, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Brittany Stout speaks: “We have this kind of underground recovery community that is starting to come up into the light and starting to raise awareness.”
[Video: B-roll of Josh Graves speaking to a crowd of people. People open purple envelopes and release butterflies.]
Josh Graves speaks in voiceover: “This is to remember the fallen, the ones that have lost their lives to this disease, the ones that are still suffering.”
Josh Graves speaks in voiceover: “I am very proud of this community. I want to see it succeed and I want to see people get their lives back. We all must come together to help fight this together. Together, we can do this. Everybody. On the count of 3, 1. 2. 3. When you start helping other individuals, there's a spiritual awakening about this.”
[Video: Josh Graves sitting in a church, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Josh Graves speaks: “It's worth more than any amount of money in the world.”
[Video: B-roll of people opening purple envelopes and releasing butterflies. Josh Graves looks into the camera.]
Josh Graves speaks in voiceover: “When you can pull somebody from the depths of hell and bring them back to this side and show them another way of living. That's when it's worth it. Saving one person. I give everything I can into this. I feel like this is what I was made to do.”
[Video: Brittany Stout sitting in a church, speaking to camera corresponding to voiceover.]
Brittany Stout speaks: “I think that if Dakota were here, he'd be really proud. I think if Dakota where he would be a part of it, and I think he'd be sober, and he would have this whole new group of people that loved him.”
[Video: B-roll of a woman holding a painting of Dakota Stout. A butterfly flies into the air.]
Brittany Stout speaks in voiceover: “I hope that we're making him proud. I hope that we're doing for others what we didn't do for him.