Address Structural Stigma

What You Need To Know

• Stigma influences the entire continuum of care for individuals navigating substance use. Stigma is a barrier to seeking treatment and exacerbates preexisting health disparities.*

• People who have experienced such stigma are best suited to identify it within organizational policies and culture. 

Where to Go for More Information

• Respect To Connect: Undoing Stigma

• Words Matter - Terms to Use and Avoid When Talking About Addiction from the National Institute on Drug abuse (NIDA)

• Changing how we talk about substance use 

Research

• A recent literature review identified 28 studies between 2000 and 2011 that assessed health care professionals’ attitudes toward patients with substance use problems and concluded that providers’ negative attitudes directed at such patients contribute to suboptimal care. -.Stigma among health professionals towards patients with substance use disorders and its consequences for healthcare delivery: Systematic review

• The association between perceived stigma and substance use disorder treatment outcomes: a review

• Human Rights, Stigma, and Substance Use

• Justice, stigma, and the new epidemiology of health disparities