The Addiction Policy Forum’s Anti-Stigma Initiative has deployed new anti-stigma interventions and resources for communities. The new initiative is designed to: 

​

• Reduce addiction stigma, including stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination intent, 

• Increase knowledge about addiction, 

• Improve helping behaviors towards individuals with a substance use disorder, and

• Identify levels of addiction stigma in a community to establish a baseline indicator. 

Addiction is one of the most stigmatized health conditions on earth and prevents people who are struggling from reaching out for help and isolates families affected by the disease who fear being judged by their communities. 

Twelve communities were selected in 2023 to serve as anti-stigma pilot sites at no cost to the agency/jurisdiction. Year one of the project has included a pilot test of new anti-stigma interventions and the deployment of a stigma survey. ​​
 

About Stigma

Addiction is one of the most stigmatized health conditions on earth and prevents people who are struggling from reaching out for help and isolates families affected by the disease who fear being judged by their communities. While over 20 million people in the United States struggle with substance use disorders, nearly half of Americans don’t think that addiction is a disease. 

Recent research shows that more than 80% of Americans are unwilling to associate with friends, co-workers, or neighbors suffering from a substance use disorder. Stigma also leads to discrimination in a variety of settings, including health care, criminal justice, employment, child custody, and housing, and creates barriers to accessing evidence-informed treatment and harm reduction services. The public and many professionals continue to view SUDs as a moral failing, which reinforces discriminatory policies and practices and further isolates and deters those struggling from seeking help. 

​

  Committee on the Science of Changing Behavioral Health Social Norms, Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, & National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2016). Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change. National Academies Press (US). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK384915/

Room R. (2005). Stigma, social inequality and alcohol and drug use. Drug and alcohol review, 24(2), 143–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/09595230500102434

​

   Volkow, N. D. (2020). Addressing the Stigma that Surrounds Addiction. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). https://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/noras-blog/2020/04/addressing-stigma-surrounds-addiction

Tsai, A. C., Kiang, M. V., Barnett, M. L., Beletsky, L., Keyes, K. M., McGinty, E. E., Smith, L. R., Strathdee, S. A., Wakeman, S. E., & Venkataramani, A. S. (2019). Stigma as a fundamental hindrance to the United States opioid overdose crisis response. PLoS medicine, 16(11), e1002969. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002969

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Board on Health Sciences Policy; Committee on Medication-Assisted Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder, Mancher, M., & Leshner, A. I. (Eds.). (2019). Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Save Lives. National Academies Press (US). https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30896911

​

​

​