AI Article Synopsis
- * The research comprised interviews and a survey, revealing that many participants were influenced by their social networks and felt civil commitment could help initiate recovery and reduce overdose risks.
- * Concerns were raised about the effectiveness and quality of care in commitment facilities, particularly since some families experienced increased overdose risks after periods of forced abstinence.
Article Abstract
Background: Civil commitment statutes allow qualified individuals to petition for court-mandated commitment for someone with a substance use disorder (SUD). Despite a lack of empirical evidence showing efficacy of involuntary commitment, these statutes are prevalent worldwide. We examined perspectives on civil commitment among family members and close friends of people who use illicit opioids in Massachusetts, U.S.A.
Methods: Eligible individuals were Massachusetts residents, ≥18 years of age, did not use illicit opioids but had a close relationship with someone who did. We used a sequential mixed methods approach in which semi-structured interviews (N=22) were followed by a quantitative survey (N=260). Thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data and survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.
Results: While some family members were influenced by SUD professionals to petition for civil commitment, influence from social networks based on personal experience was more common. Motivations for civil commitment included initiating recovery and believing that commitment would reduce overdose risk. Some reported that it afforded them respite from caring for, and worrying about, their loved one. A minority discussed increases in overdose risk following a period of forced abstinence. Participants expressed concerns about the variable quality of care during commitment, largely based on the use of corrections facilities for civil commitment in Massachusetts. A minority endorsed the use of these facilities for civil commitment.
Conclusions: Despite participants' uncertainty and the harms stemming from civil commitment, including increased risk of overdose after forced abstinence and the use of corrections facilities, family members resorted to this mechanism to reduce immediate overdose risk. Our findings indicate that peer support groups are an appropriate forum to disseminate information about evidenced-based treatment and that family members and others close to those with SUD often lack adequate support for, and respite from, the stress of caring for them.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2023.104074 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Prioritising and including children in intersectoral policymaking: uncovering Immunity to Change in Ghana.
BMJ Glob Health
December 2024
Institute for Global Health, University College London, London, UK.
Despite strong commitments to improving children's well-being, nearly a third of Ghanaian children aged 36-59 months are not developmentally on track, with additional challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Improvements in children's health and well-being rely on effective intersectoral policies, however, not enough is known about how to achieve this in practice, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. We report on a case study of participatory intersectoral policymaking for child health in Ghana in 2021, feeding into the national Early Childhood Care and Development Policy.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSimilar health emergencies, different commitments: Comparative strategies to end Ebola and COVID-19 in "post-conflict" Liberia.
Soc Sci Med
December 2024
The Department of Geography and Environment, Western University, London, Ontario, Canada. Electronic address:
Liberia, in the face of two consecutive health emergencies - the Ebola epidemic in 2014 and COVID in 2019 - offers a unique, comparative perspective on health crisis management within a fractured healthcare system. In dialogue with a feminist-informed political economy of health in the African context, this paper has two central objectives. First, it examines the strategies employed by community-based women's organisations - many of whom remain invested in peacebuilding after a 14-year civil war (1989-2003)) - to contain the Ebola and COVID-19 disease outbreaks.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIda B. Wells-Barnett as an anticolonial theorist on crime and punishment.
Br J Sociol
December 2024
Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, USA.
Treasuring the legacy of Ida B Wells-Barnett as a Black feminist is a vital liberatory commitment, as previous scholarship has commendably demonstrated. Equally important, however, is the need to present Wells-Barnett as an anticolonial theorist whose scholarly texts-Southern Horrors, A Red Record, and Crusade for Justice-should be incorporated into social theory curricula. This article examines Wells-Barnett's acute apprehension of the foundational structures of the US empire-state in her scholarly writings on lynching.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDisease-modifying treatment and disability progression in subclasses of patients with primary progressive MS: results from the Big MS Data Network.
J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry
December 2024
Department of Neurology, The Alfred Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Background: Effectiveness of disease-modifying treatment (DMT) in people affected by primary progressive multiple sclerosis (PPMS) is limited. Whether specific subgroups may benefit more from DMT in a real-world setting remains unclear. Our aim was to investigate the potential effect of DMT on disability worsening among patients with PPMS stratified by different disability trajectories.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPrinciples, barriers and enablers to agroecological animal production systems: a qualitative approach based on five case studies.
Animal
November 2024
Farming Systems Ecology, Wageningen University and Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Agroecology is among the most promising options to alleviate the negative impacts of animal farming on the environment and build local food systems based on ethically acceptable production methods. So far, most of the research on agroecological animal production systems was conducted at farm scale, and the potential of agroecological principles addressing social dimensions and food system-level approaches has been underexplored. Here, we analyse how the whole set of agroecological principles was mobilised in five case studies on grassland-based, silvopastoral or integrated crop-livestock systems in Switzerland, Guadeloupe, French uplands, Bulgaria and Andalucía.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!