"You'll come in and dose even in a global pandemic": A qualitative study of adaptive opioid agonist treatment provision during the COVID-19 pandemic.

BACKGROUND: Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) improves multiple health and social outcomes, yet requirements to attend for supervised dosing can be burdensome and stigmatising. The COVID-19 pandemic and associated restrictions threatened continuity of care and the wellbeing of people receiving OAT, risking a parallel health crisis. This study sought to understand how adaptations in the complex system of OAT provision impacted and responded to risk environments of people receiving OAT during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHODS: The analysis draws on semi-structured interviews with 40 people receiving and 29 people providing OAT located across Australia. The study considered the risk environments that produce COVID-19 transmission, treatment (non-)adherence, and adverse events for people receiving OAT. Drawing on theories of risk environments and complex adaptive systems, data were coded and analysed to understand how adaptations to the typically rigid system of OAT provision impacted and responded to risk environments during the COVID-19 pandemic. RESULTS: During COVID-19, the complex system of OAT provision demonstrated possibilities for responsive adaptation to the entangled features of risk environments of people receiving OAT. Structural stigma was evident in the services which stayed rigid during the pandemic, requiring people to attend for daily supervised dosing and risking fracturing therapeutic relationships. In parallel, there were several examples of services developing enabling environments by offering flexible care through increased takeaways, treatment subsidies, and home delivery. CONCLUSIONS: Rigidity in the delivery of OAT has been an impediment to achieving health and wellbeing over past decades. To sustain health-promoting environments for people receiving OAT, the wider impacts of the complex system should be acknowledged beyond narrowly defined outcomes relating solely to the medication. Centring people receiving OAT in their own care plans will ensure adaptations in the complex system of OAT provision are responsive to the individual's risk environment.

How the rural risk environment underpins hepatitis C risk: Qualitative findings from rural southern Illinois, United States.

BACKGROUND: Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection has increased among persons who inject drugs (PWID) in the United States with disproportionate burden in rural areas. We use the Risk Environment framework to explore potential economic, physical, social, and political determinants of hepatitis C in rural southern Illinois. METHODS: Nineteen in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with PWID from August 2019 through February 2020 (i.e., pre-COVID-19 pandemic) and four with key informants who professionally worked with PWID. Interviews were recorded, professionally transcribed, and coded using qualitative software. We followed a grounded theory approach for coding and analyses. RESULTS: We identify economic, physical, policy, and social factors that may influence HCV transmission risk and serve as barriers to HCV care. Economic instability and lack of economic opportunities, a lack of physically available HCV prevention and treatment services, structural stigma such as policies that criminalize drug use, and social stigma emerged in interviews as potential risks for transmission and barriers to care. CONCLUSION: The rural risk environment framework acknowledges the importance of community and structural factors that influence HCV infection and other disease transmission and care. We find that larger structural factors produce vulnerabilities and reduce access to resources, which negatively impact hepatitis C disease outcomes.

Safety and health at the workplace in the context of COVID-19: The case of a dental clinic

Governments of different countries and healthcare organisations working in various areas face enormous challenges when trying to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and protect employees, their families and communities. Workplaces can be high-risk environments in terms of the virus outbreak and transmission. This paper aims to disclose the ways for workplace safety improvement in dentistry in the context of COVID-19. The authors present the theoretical model of workplace safety improvement with regard to COVID-19 infection prevention and control measures. The expectations, fears and tasks of dental employees at their workplace in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic were investigated based on the systematic literature review and the qualitative empirical study conducted in Lithuania. The study disclosed that unmet employee expectations could lead to different kinds of fear;the most common sources of anxiety are linked to a higher risk of getting infected, a lack or misuse of protection measures and inadequately performed work. Occupational risks are closely related to the components of a workplace system. Therefore, it is important to apply a holistic approach to improve workplace safety, enhance work performance and minimise the negative effects on an employee, an organisation, a patient and a society. © 2022 R. Čiutienė et al.

Substance Use Disorders and COVID-19: Multi-Faceted Problems Which Require Multi-Pronged Solutions.

COVID-19 shocked health and economic systems leaving millions of people without employment and safety nets. The pandemic disproportionately affects people with substance use disorders (SUDs) due to the collision between SUDs and COVID-19. Comorbidities and risk environments for SUDs are likely risk factors for COVID-19. The pandemic, in turn, diminishes resources that people with SUD need for their recovery and well-being. This article presents an interdisciplinary and international perspective on how COVID-19 and the related systemic shock impact on individuals with SUDs directly and indirectly. We highlight a need to understand SUDs as biopsychosocial disorders and use evidence-based policies to destigmatize SUDs. We recommend a suite of multi-sectorial actions and strategies to strengthen, modernize and complement addiction care systems which will become resilient and responsive to future systemic shocks similar to the COVID-19 pandemic.