Purpose
Despite the prevalence of mental illness and substance use across Canada, people who live with such experiences are often still met with stigma. Mental health- and substance use-related stigma can have profound consequences on an individual, especially when it comes from health-care providers and first responders. Such stigma is a major barrier to accessing care, treatment, and recovery and has had a particularly negative impact on those affected by the opioid crisis.
Methodology
Stigma and the Opioid Crisis, a Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC) qualitative study, reveals a number of key findings on opioid-related stigma: its character (in the context of direct care and response),1 impacts, sources, and promising approaches available for tackling it.
Key Findings
What opioid-related stigma looks and feels like
- Negative attitudes, judgments, and stereotypes
- Problematic use of labels and language
- Negative interactions between clients and care providers
- Shame and the internalization of addiction
- Punitive and exclusionary policies and practices
Where opioid-related stigma comes from
- Punitive views about addiction, treatment, and recovery
- The illegality of certain opioids and other drugs
- People who use opioids being seen as unworthy and undeserving
- Ambivalent stances on emergency relief
- Trauma, compassion fatigue, and burnout
- System inadequacies and gaps in services and policies
What impacts opioid-related stigma has
- Affects how we conceptualize, frame, and prioritize the current crisis
- Leads to the avoidance of services and creates barriers to help-seeking
- Contributes to ongoing system mistrust, particularly among marginalized populations
- Results in a poorer quality of care and response to clients
What promising approaches exist for tackling opioid-related stigma
- Education on addiction, treatment, and recovery
- Interventions focused on building client-provider trust
- Social contact as a key stigma-reduction tool
- Training in trauma-informed practice and care
- Inward-facing training to build resilience and mitigate burnout among first responders and health-care providers (i.e., training that encourages participants to self-reflect)
- Addressing system gaps and barriers
