43 results match your criteria: "Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research.[Affiliation]"

Collaborating With Jails to Provide Community-Based Medication for Opioid Use Disorder: Qualitative Perspectives from MOUD Treatment Providers.

J Addict Med

December 2024

From the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA (EP); University of Puerto Rico Medical Sciences Campus, San Juan, Puerto Rico (BYPG); Baystate Health and University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School-Baystate, Springfield, MA (PDF), Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Worcester, MA (PDF); Department of Public Health and Community Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, MA (TJS); Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, Northeastern University, Boston, MA (CS); and Department of Health Promotion and Policy, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA (EAE).

Objectives: As carceral settings increasingly offer medications for opioid use disorders (MOUD), community-based providers will need to navigate relationships with correctional agencies to ensure continuity of MOUD upon release. Although collaboration has been identified as critical between agencies, limited research is available that details how providers can work with jails. We describe the perspectives of MOUD providers about their experiences collaborating with jails that had recently begun to offer MOUD.

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Social-ecological Protective and Risk Factors Associated with Depressive Symptoms among Black Adolescents.

Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol

November 2024

Departments of Health Sciences and Applied Psychology, Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA.

Article Synopsis
  • Exposure to direct and intergenerational adversity can lead to increased depressive symptoms in Black adolescents, who are particularly vulnerable due to systemic racism and stress, yet many do not develop mental health issues.
  • The study involved 141 Black adolescents (ages 11-17) and assessed factors like internal assets, mother-adolescent communication, and community support to understand their protective roles against depression.
  • Results showed that less exposure to adversity, stronger internal assets, and effective communication with mothers were linked to fewer depressive symptoms, suggesting that improving family communication and personal strengths could help mitigate depression in Black youth.
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Developing a Statewide Strategic Plan for Prevention, Early Identification, and Treatment of Psychosis.

Psychiatr Serv

November 2024

Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, Northeastern University, Boston (Lincoln, Matsumoto); Massachusetts Psychosis Network for Early Treatment (Johnson) and Department of Psychology, Harvard Medical School (Friedman-Yakoobian), Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston; Massachusetts Department of Mental Health, Boston (Guyer-Deason).

Access to evidence-based programs that address early psychosis is a substantial public health concern. The authors describe the community-engaged, data-driven process that informed the development of the Massachusetts Strategic Plan for Early Psychosis, an effort to identify actionable priorities to build a system of prevention and care that responds to the needs of individuals who experience psychosis and their caregivers. A multiphase, mixed-methods approach was used to gather knowledge from young adults experiencing early psychosis and their caregivers, including two symposia with diverse stakeholders.

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We explored associations between multisystemic resilience and anxious-depressed symptoms in Black families experiencing maternal syndemics (i.e., co-occurring epidemics of substance abuse, violence, HIV/AIDS), using a sequential explanatory study design.

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Vicarious trauma and the COVID-19 pandemic: The role of organisations.

Stress Health

October 2024

Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.

Vicarious trauma (VT) is an occupational challenge incurred through hearing about traumatic experiences of others such as child maltreatment, mass casualties, and others while serving in helping professions. Without sufficient resources and support, long-term exposure can lead to symptoms such as intrusion, avoidance, arousal, emotional numbing, anxiety, and decline in one's ability to work. Organisations can mitigate VT's impact by addressing the needs of staff through 5 evidence-informed areas of occupational health.

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Anti-Black racism, heterosexism, and transphobia are significant public health concerns contributing to poor adolescent health outcomes. The authors introduce the health-equity adapted STYLE framework to increase knowledge and awareness of Black and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, non-binary, queer, questioning, asexual, or intersex (LGBTQ) + intersectionality. Guided by case examples, the authors identify key strategies to promote anti-racist, anti-heterosexist, and anti-transphobic practices.

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Three things we learned along the way: lessons for training in psychiatric epidemiology.

Am J Epidemiol

October 2024

Departments of Epidemiology and Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, United States.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, and its associated mortality, morbidity, and deep social and economic impacts, was a global traumatic stressor that challenged population mental health and our de facto mental health care system in unprecedented ways. Yet, in many respects, this crisis is not new. Psychiatric epidemiologists have recognized for decades the need and unmet need of people in distress and the limits of the public mental health services in the United States.

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Background: Pregnancy presents a critical period for any maternal and child health intervention that may impact the health of the newborn. With low antenatal care attendance by pregnant women in health facilities in Nigeria, community-based programs could enable increased reach for health education about sickle cell disease (SCD) and newborn screening (NBS) among pregnant women. This pilot study aimed to assess the effect of education on the knowledge about SCD and NBS among pregnant women using the Healthy Beginning Initiative, a community-based framework.

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Importance: Strategies and innovations to advance racial and ethnic equity in recruitment, promotion, and retention at academic health science institutions are needed.

Objective: This learning assessment aims to isolate evidence-based strategies to advance racial equity in the academic health sciences, which have implications for policy and institution-level interventions.

Evidence Review: This learning assessment used a mixed-methods approach, including a quantitative survey, qualitative in-depth interviews, and a scoping literature review.

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Introduction: Weight stigma is widespread and exists across numerous domains including health care, educational institutions, workplaces, mass media, and interpersonal relationships. Weight stigma experienced during the college years may be particularly consequential because the college years are a period of increased vulnerability for the development of mental health concerns. The purpose of the present study was to examine how experiences of weight stigma relate to mental health concerns, including symptoms of eating disorders, anxiety, and depression, among college students.

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Messaging inclusion with consequence: U.S. sanctuary cities and immigrant wellbeing.

J Migr Health

July 2023

Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, Boston, MA 02115, United States.

In the United States (U.S.), sanctuary cities have increasingly garnered public attention as places dedicated to increasing immigrant safety, inclusion, and health.

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Cannabis retailer locations used to investigate geographic cannabis access are frequently ascertained from two sources: 1) webservices which provide locations of cannabis retailers (e.g., Yelp) or 2) government-maintained registries.

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Spatializing stigma-power: Mental health impacts of spatial stigma in a legally-excluded settlement in Mumbai, India.

PLOS Glob Public Health

July 2023

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, College of Social Sciences and Humanities, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, United States of America.

In disadvantaged neighborhoods such as informal settlements (or "slums" in the Indian context), infrastructural deficits and social conditions have been associated with residents' poor mental health. Within social determinants of health framework, spatial stigma, or negative portrayal and stereotyping of particular neighborhoods, has been identified as a contributor to health deficits, but remains under-examined in public health research and may adversely impact the mental health of slum residents through pathways including disinvestment in infrastructure, internalization, weakened community relations, and discrimination. Based on analyses of individual interviews (n = 40) and focus groups (n = 6) in Kaula Bandar (KB), an informal settlement in Mumbai with a previously described high rate of probable common mental disorders (CMD), this study investigates the association between spatial stigma and mental health.

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Opioid overdose deaths continue to present major public health challenges in the U.S. Harm reduction agencies have begun using drug checking technologies to identify adulterants in the local drug supply and reduce overdose risk among people who use drugs (PWUD).

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Article Synopsis
  • Prescription opioids have significantly impacted public health in the U.S., creating a need for more research on clinicians' views regarding opioid prescribing and the effectiveness of prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs).
  • A study conducted 23 qualitative interviews with clinicians in Massachusetts, exploring their perspectives on the opioid crisis, changes in prescribing practices, and experiences with PDMPs.
  • Findings revealed that clinicians acknowledged their role in the crisis and often reduced opioid prescriptions due to its severity, valuing the awareness provided by PDMPs but expressing concerns about surveillance and unintended consequences, especially those in high-overdose areas who had more detailed insights.
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Background: People with opioid use disorder (OUD) face barriers to entering and remaining in life-saving treatment (e.g., stigma, detrimental interactions with health care, and privacy concerns).

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Background: Individuals with opioid use disorder released to communities after incarceration experience an elevated risk for overdose death. Massachusetts is the first state to mandate county jails to deliver all FDA approved medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD). The present study considered perspectives around coordination of post-release care among jail staff engaged in MOUD programs focused on coordination of care to the community.

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Art Advocacy: Applying a Public Memory Rhetorical Framework to Health Crisis Communication.

Health Commun

March 2023

Department of Health Sciences, Bouvé College of Health Sciences, Department of Communication Studies, College of Arts, Media and Design, Institute for Health Equity and Social Justice Research, Northeastern University.

Health campaigns and public health messaging strategies often rely on text-based efforts to communicate with audiences. As research grows in the areas of health and visual media, this essay puts a rhetorical framework of public memory in conversation with health campaign communication to show possibilities for audiences who are less likely to be moved by traditional institutional health narratives. The artifact for analysis is an art installation by Domenic Esposito, who in 2018 designed and placed a large scale "Opioid Spoon" at the headquarters of Purdue Pharma in Stamford, Connecticut.

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Background: Health literacy (HL) has been defined as the ability of individuals to access, understand, and utilise basic health information. HL is crucial to patient engagement in treatment through supporting patient autonomy, informed consent and collaborative care. In people with physical disorders, poor HL is associated with poor health outcomes, but less is known about HL in people with severe mental illness.

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Background: Individuals with legal involvement and opioid use disorders (OUD) are at an increased risk of overdose and premature death. Yet, few correctional systems provide all FDA approved medications for OUD (MOUD) to all qualifying incarcerated individuals. We report on the implementation of MOUD in seven Massachusetts' jails following a state legislative mandate to provide access to all FDA-approved MOUD and to connect with treatment upon release.

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The present study examined revictimization, defined as sexual or physical assault in adulthood that followed a history of childhood maltreatment. We aimed to identify factors associated with revictimization over time in a group of U.S.

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Social support is closely linked to health, but little is known about United States (U.S.) veterans' social support over time and factors that may influence their support trajectories.

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