Background: Given well-established efficacy of contingency management (CM), demand grows for effective implementation support. Coaching-to-criterion is a strategy for assuring workforce capability to deliver CM programming with fidelity. To what extent this preparative strategy is comparably useful for addiction professionals and peer specialists is unknown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAddict Sci Clin Pract
June 2025
Background: Contingency management (CM) that is delivered by peer recovery support specialists and incentivizes harm reduction goals among people not seeking treatment for stimulant use has not been tested. The Peers Expanding Engagement in Stimulant Harm Reduction with Contingency Management (PEER-CM) study compares the effectiveness of two peer-facilitated CM interventions: (1) an experimental approach incentivizing achievement of client-identified harm reduction goals and (2) an enhanced standard of care approach incentivizing peer visit attendance.
Methods: Applying a hybrid type 1 effectiveness-implementation framework and stepped-wedge design across 14 community-based peer services sites across Oregon, the PEER-CM study trains peers to conduct CM.
Background: Novel strategies are needed to engage people who use stimulants into the continuum of addiction care. Contingency management (CM) is the most effective intervention for stimulant use disorder and may engage non-treatment-seeking populations, especially when delivered by peer recovery support specialists (peers). We describe development and training for a novel peer-delivered CM program for stimulant use harm reduction and treatment engagement.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Subst Abuse Treat
October 2022
Introduction: Nonpharmaceutical fentanyl has reconfigured the U.S. illicit drug market, contributing to a drastic increase in overdose drug deaths.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Illicit fentanyl has contributed to a drastic increase in overdose drug deaths. While fentanyl has subsumed the drug supply in the Northeastern and Midwestern USA, it has more recently reached the Western USA. For this study, we explored perspectives of people who use drugs (PWUD) on the changing drug supply in Oregon, experiences of and response to fentanyl-involved overdose, and recommendations from PWUD to reduce overdose risk within the context of illicit fentanyl's dramatic increase in the recreational drug supply over the past decade.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Addict Med
November 2022
Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine COVID-19 vaccination acceptance and explore reasons for COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy among people who use drugs (PWUDs), a population with increased COVID-19 transmission and morbidity.
Methods: We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with PWUDs in 7 Oregon counties from May 11 to June 25, 2021. Participants (n = 34) were recruited in partnership with syringe service programs and local community organizations staff, participant-referrals, and flyer advertising.
In this narrative review, we outline the literature describing the history, training, certification, and role of peer recovery support specialists working with people with substance use disorders at different stages of active use and recovery. We explore the impact of peer recovery support specialists serving people in various settings, including the community, hospitals and emergency departments, jails and prisons, and treatment and recovery agencies; and describes considerations for future expansion of peer recovery support services, including supervision needs, compassion fatigue and burnout, and scope of practice. Finally, we make recommendations to support the broad implementation of peer recovery support services as a sustainable, cohesive, and replicable component of harm reduction and addiction services.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFCoronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) may influence HIV/HCV transmission risk behaviors in rural communities. We conducted semi-structured qualitative interviews with people who use drugs (PWUD) in five rural Oregon counties and asked about COVID-19 impact on substance use and harm reduction practices and their advice for improving public health responses. Participants (n = 36) reported using only methamphetamine (52.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health, substance use, and overdose concerns among people who use drugs (PWUDs) in rural communities to explore reasons for changes and ways to mitigate COVID-19 impact in the future.
Methods: We conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews with PWUDs in 5 rural Oregon counties with high overdose rates. Participants were identified through participant-driven sampling along with flyer and text advertising (n = 36).
Health Justice
July 2020
Background: Drug overdose is the leading cause of death after release from prison, and this risk is significantly higher among women compared to men. Within the first 2 weeks after release, the risk of death from drug overdose is 12.7 times higher than the general population, with risk of death further elevated among females.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Community-based participatory research (CBPR) seeks to improve the responsiveness of science to community priorities and foster positive community change through equitable research collaborations between scientists and community members. CBPR resonates with disability rights principles, and is increasingly being used in disability research, though there are few studies of its use with people with developmental disabilities.
Objective: We conducted a prospective qualitative study to explore the experiences of scientists and community members in a multi-year CBPR project with people with developmental disabilities.