The opioid epidemic has been deemed the most pressing health issue by the American health authorities. According to the Healthy People 2030 objectives, aimed at decreasing the proportion of people who suffered from opioid use disorder in the past year, the target value for the indicator stands at 0.5 %(Healthy People 2030, n.d.). This goal reflects efforts to prevent opioid misuse and ensure that individuals with substance use disorders receive appropriate treatment. The three evidence-based educational strategies will be the main focus, as well as how these can be used to improve patients’ health literacy and deepen their understanding of opioid use disorder.
Health Disparities
The opioid use problem (OUP) is an acute issue in the United States in that some particular people are not protected from more to greater part. Racial and ethnic minority groups, which include Hispanics, might not receive appropriate pain care as non-Hispanic whites (Swift et al.,2019) declared by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It increases the chance of OUD in these zones being an adverse factor. Apart from that, individuals from low socioeconomic status call are disproportionately exposed to the disease because of limited medical care and a lack of education about the harms of using opioids. Furthermore, unequal access to treatment looms large among the statistics of OUD. The reasons for disparities in opioid-related overdose death rates within rural areas, where people face more limited access to good healthcare services, compared to urban areas (Healthy People 2030, n.d.). These areas are hindered by deficits in terms of availability of health facilities and personnel, as well as transportation issues, which, to some extent, constrain the patients from seeking evidence-based OUD treatments within those regions. In addition to this, the acceptance of opioid use disorder, mostly in rural communities society, fuels the problem of dealing with it effectively.
Healthcare Strategies
To minimize the impact of opioid use disorder disparities, the solution would be to hold a health strategy that is responsive to the needs of these groups. Thus, one of the ways healthcare workers can be trained on is cultural competence. Cultural competencies training can enable healthcare providers to understand the obstacles that racial and ethnic minorities face in terms of healthcare seeking later can lead to better pain management techniques and avoiding opioid use disorder(Swift et al., 2019). A second plan that may look forward to is the advancement of evidence-based treatment availability for opioid use disorder. This implies MAT, which includes interactions between the given drugs and therapy, which has been proven to be effective. Educating patients with information on therapies helps to cut down the health gap among opioid use disorder patients (Alexander et al., 2020). It is also very important to remove misconceptions that are associated with opioid use disorder to speak about health inequities. This is made possible by the addition of harm reduction programs that involve the exchange of syringes and naloxone promoters. These interventions can explain how opioids can cause harm while promoting recovery as one of the options.
Education Strategies
To improve health literacy and enhance understanding of opioid use disorder, evidence-based education strategies must be implemented. This includes educating the patients through materials such as brochures that contain all the information about opioid risks and benefits for them to understand easily (Alexander et al., 2020). Communication methods oriented toward patients can serve as another approach as well. Among those is the use of simple language, clear messages, medical jargon, and visual aids, which will scan the information that they provide.(Alexander et al., 2020). For an average patient with insufficient health literacy, visual pictures or other graphic strategies that make intricate medical data easy to understand can be really beneficial. Mobile Health (mHealth) applications are one of the several ways to discuss opioid use disorder with patients. These Apps provide drug use tracking with aides of mobile applications, reminders to take drugs, and access to educational resources (Peng et al., 2020).
In conclusion, the opioid crisis is not only a significant health issue but possesses a large disparity in the epidemiological field of health equity. Challenging tasks are cultural competence for health workers, availability of evidence-based treatments, and the elimination of the stigma associated with opioid use disorder are the principal approaches to address the effect of such inequalities. Additionally, EBM education techniques like the sharing of profound and, at the same time, essential aspects of information, the usage of patient-centered language, and the implementation of mHealth technology are, of course, a well-warranted recourse.
References
Alexander, G. C., Stoller, K. B., Haffajee, R. L., & Saloner, B. (2020). An Epidemic in the Midst of a Pandemic: Opioid Use Disorder and COVID-19. Annals of Internal Medicine, 173(1). https://doi.org/10.7326/M20-1141
Reduce the proportion of people who had opioid use disorder in the past year — SU-18 – Healthy People 2030 | health.gov. (n.d.). Health.gov. Retrieved January 13, 2021, from https://health.gov/healthypeople/objectives-and-data/browse-objectives/drug-and-alcohol-use/reduce-proportion-people-who-had-opioid-use-disorder-past-year-su-18
Swift, S. L., Glymour, M. M., Elfassy, T., Lewis, C., Kiefe, C. I., Sidney, S., Calonico, S., Feaster, D., Bailey, Z., & Zeki Al Hazzouri, A. (2019). Racial discrimination in medical care settings and opioid pain reliever misuse in a U.S. cohort: 1992 to 2015. PLOS ONE, 14(12), e0226490. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0226490
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