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Placing Racial Equity at the Center of Substance Use Research: Lessons From the HEALing Communities Study

By A. Chatterjee et al., published in 2022 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Structural racism, “the totality of ways in which societies foster racial discrimination through mutually reinforcing systems of housing, education, employment, earnings, benefits, credit, media, health care, and criminal justice,” is pervasive in the United States, impacting all systems including addiction treatment. This article describes efforts to center racial equity in the Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (HEALing) Communities Study (HCS), a multisite implementation research study sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to reduce opioid overdose deaths in highly affected communities. Guided by what Public Health Critical Race Praxis (a framework to help researchers understand and challenge the power hierarchies that buttress health inequities) terms “disciplinary self- critique,” we share lessons and opportunities that we hope will resonate with researchers and funders in the addiction field and help us all better center racial equity in our work.

Placing Racial Equity at the Center of Substance Use Research: Lessons From the HEALing Communities Study

By A. Chatterjee et al., published in 2022 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Structural racism, “the totality of ways in which societies foster racial discrimination through mutually reinforcing systems of housing, education, employment, earnings, benefits, credit, media, health care, and criminal justice,” is pervasive in the United States, impacting all systems including addiction treatment. This article describes efforts to center racial equity in the Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (HEALing) Communities Study (HCS), a multisite implementation research study sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to reduce opioid overdose deaths in highly affected communities. Guided by what Public Health Critical Race Praxis (a framework to help researchers understand and challenge the power hierarchies that buttress health inequities) terms “disciplinary self- critique,” we share lessons and opportunities that we hope will resonate with researchers and funders in the addiction field and help us all better center racial equity in our work.

Placing Racial Equity at the Center of Substance Use Research: Lessons From the HEALing Communities Study

September 30, 2025 • YouthREX

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