Occupations Unpacked
By Hailey Pister
Occupations UnpackedJul 23, 2022
Where Do We Go From Here? Advocacy and Next Steps
Join Hailey and OT Tay Amin-Arsala in the last episode of season 1 of Occupations Unpacked! In this episode they break down the complexity of advocacy within the healthcare field and how we take this basis of knowledge around substance use and utilize it to support transformative change. Tay provides some valuable information on their experience and what it looks like to navigate the advocacy field.
Trauma Informed Care as a Foundational Aspect for People who use Drugs
Join Hailey and Dr. Amy Lynch as we dive deep into how trauma impacts communities that experience stigmatization and what that means for healthcare professionals. Listen to some great tools for how to create a space where clients can feel safe to engage in a therapeutic alliance and how reflection within ourselves leads to a more trauma-informed practice. This episode goes into why we need to meet clients where they are and the importance of advocacy and research in these fields!
Understanding Overdose Prevention Centers: Community Centered Care at OnPoint in NYC
Join Hailey and OnPoint’s executive director, Sam Rivera, as they unpack what happens in the first two overdose prevention sites in the United States and the community that is built through the centers. Come to learn more about OnPoint’s wraparound services, the clients that use them, and how the implementation of this site is supporting the community through evidence-based practices. Follow them on Instagram at @nyhre to keep up with their incredible practice and watch them do more amazing things!
Statistics from OnPoint as of July 28th, 2022:
- 1,471 individual participants
- 27,444 utilizations
- 379 overdose interventions
Policy as a Barrier and the Implications for People who use Drugs
In this episode, Dr. Erin Madden drops some amazing information about how stigma is integrated, not only in general society, but within the addiction treatment field as well. Join us as we discuss the importance of policy in how interventions are stigmatized, why it’s important to be aware of the intersectionality of stigma, and where we should go from here.
Sensory Practices for the Empowerment of People who use Drugs
Join us as we talk everything sensory in this episode with Australian based OT, Michelle Taylor! Michelle provides us with a basis for how sensory practices work, why it is a helpful tool to use in supporting people who use substances, and how to create buy-in for sensory practices in your clinic.
Toolkit for professionals working in the substance use field: https://insight.qld.edu.au/toolkits/using-your-senses/detail
Expanding Our Knowledge of Addiction Supports: Medication Assisted Treatment
This episode’s guest is the wonderful Mora Lucero—a substance use counselor at Boston Comprehensive Treatment Center. In this episode, Mora provides context for what happens at a medication assisted treatment site and her role with clients. Join us as we talk more deeply about the barriers and supports to client’s reaching their goals and how we can advocate as clinicians.
Free overdose prevention training: https://delvalle.bphc.org/enrol/index.php?id=660
Stigmatization and Healthcare: How We View Substances Matters
Hailey welcomes Dr. Avik Chatterjee onto the podcast for a conversation about the stigmatization of drugs that has impacted how society views substances as well as the people who use them. Join us for a rich discussion on how this stigma impacts healthcare access and what we should be doing about it.
Supplemental Reading:
Barry, C. L., Sherman, S. G., & McGinty, E. E. (2018). Language matters in combatting the opioid epidemic: Safe consumption sites versus overdose prevention sites. American Journal of Public Health, 108(9), 1157–1159. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2018.304588
Meyerson, B. E., Russell, D. M., Kichler, M., Atkin, T., Fox, G., & Coles, H. B. (2021). I don’t even want to go to the doctor when I get sick now: Healthcare experiences and discrimination reported by people who use drugs, Arizona 2019. International Journal of Drug Policy, 93, 103112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2021.103112
Substance Use is an Occupation!
Join Hailey and Rina (@doing.therapy) as they talk about substance use as an occupation for clients and the importance of harm reduction techniques within the field of Occupational Therapy. This episode provides a lot of rich information on what the field of substance use OT looks like in practice and how we can increase empathy and understanding in this practice area.
Welcome to Occupations Unpacked!
In this episode, Hailey talks about the motivation behind starting this podcast and why substance use is an important topic for OTs and other professionals to be practicing in. This episode provides context for what we are talking about, why we are talking about it, and what it means for healthcare professionals.