Abstract
Background: The non-medical use of opioids has reached epidemic levels nationwide, and rural areas have been particularly affected by increasing rates of overdose mortality as well as increases in the prison population. Individuals with opioid use disorder (OUD) are at increased risk for relapse and overdose upon reentry to the community due to decreased tolerance during incarceration. It is crucial to identify barriers to substance use disorder treatment post-release from prison because treatment can be particularly difficult to access in resource-limited rural Appalachia.
Methods: A social ecological framework was utilized to examine barriers to community-based substance use treatment among individuals with OUD in Appalachian Kentucky following release from prison. Semi-structured qualitative interviews with 15 social service clinicians (SSCs) employed by the Department of Corrections were conducted to identify barriers at the individual, interpersonal, organizational/institutional level, community, and systems levels. Two independent coders conducted line-by-line coding to identify key themes.
Results: Treatment barriers were identified across the social ecological spectrum. At the individual-level, SSCs highlighted high-risk drug use and a lack of motivation. At the interpersonal level, homogenous social networks (i.e., homophilious drug-using networks) and networks with limited treatment knowledge inhibited treatment. SSC’s high case load and probation/parole officer’s limited understanding of treatment were organizational/institutional barriers. Easy access to opioids, few treatment resources, and a lack of community support for treatment were barriers at the community level. SSC’s noted system-level barriers such as lack of transportation options, cost, and uncertainty about the implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
Conclusions: More rural infrastructure resources as well as additional education for family networks, corrections staff, and the community at large in Appalachia are needed to address barriers to OUD treatment. Future research should examine barriers from the perspective of other key stakeholders (e.g., clients, families of clients) and test interventions to increase access to OUD treatment.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-3-2018
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13722-018-0124-2
Funding Information
Supported by National Institute of Drug Abuse Grants K02DA035116 and R03-DA043377 (PI: Oser) as well as Grant T32DA035200 (Bunting; PI: Rush).
Related Content
The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available to protect confidentiality and anonymity of the participants but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Repository Citation
Bunting, Amanda M.; Oser, Carrie B.; Staton, Michele; Eddens, Katherine S.; and Knudsen, Hannah K., "Clinician Identified Barriers to Treatment for Individuals in Appalachia with Opioid Use Disorder Following Release from Prison: A Social Ecological Approach" (2018). Sociology Faculty Publications. 9.
https://uknowledge.uky.edu/sociology_facpub/9
Included in
Health Services Research Commons, Medicine and Health Commons, Rural Sociology Commons, Substance Abuse and Addiction Commons
Notes/Citation Information
Published in Addiction Science & Clinical Practice, v. 13, 23, p. 1-10.
© The Author(s) 2018
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.