What is it about?
Opioid agonist treatment (OAT) is a medication program that helps people who have developed a tolerance to opioid drugs to maintain their health and well-being. OAT consumers can feel that they are treated poorly when accessing their medication, which is experienced as stigma. This study interviewed Australian pharmacists who deliver OAT and people who access OAT to investigate their experiences of this treatment service. It found that OAT consumers experienced less stigma when their pharmacist was understanding and sensitive to their life circumstances, communicated in supportive ways, upheld their privacy, and did not treat them differently to other pharmacy customers.
Featured Image
Photo by Isaac Owens on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Through investigating the service relationship from both consumer and pharmacy perspectives, characteristics that aligned with more supportive and successful treatment experiences were identified, which can inform future policy and practice.
Perspectives
Pharmacists were compassionate to the difficulties that OAT consumers faced and were happy to be able to provide a non-judgmental, essential service to a group that struggles with social exclusion. However, many OAT consumers had experiences of being treated poorly within the pharmacy and in their lives generally, which indicates that more efforts are needed to reduce stigma and its impacts.
Theresa Caruana
University of New South Wales
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Reducing stigma within pharmacy opioid agonist treatment encounters., Stigma and Health, June 2024, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/sah0000552.
You can read the full text:
Contributors
The following have contributed to this page
