A public scholar honours alternate ways of knowing and sharing, filling a structural gap between academia and activism by deepening multisector engagement, fostering innovation and enhancing broader awareness of critical topics that examine and address issues through evidence-based research, policy and program development/delivery. Most importantly, it provides a direct channel for collaborative, evidence-based research to be put in service of the priority populations they focus on uplifting.
Research Description
Given a political climate that favours prohibition and enforcement, people who use substances are more likely to be alone while consuming illicit substances, placing them at a heightened risk of experiencing death and other drug-related harms. Opioid use disorder (OUD) is a chronic, relapsing condition that implicates all aspects of an individual’s biopsychosocial experience. Current treatment modalities have restrictive engagement limitations and give preference to siloed medication provision through Opioid Agonist Treatment (OAT) that often requires clients to structure their lives around stringent supervisory practices such as daily dispensation and witnessed doses. The lack of treatment-life balance negatively impacts clients’ ability to form self-directed social relationships, a critical component to increasing quality of life and encouraging treatment engagement. This is especially true for clients receiving injectable opioid agonist treatment (iOAT), as they are required to return to the clinic up to three times daily to receive their medication on site. If treatment options come only at the expense of entrenching clients in a stringent medicalized form of care through strict clinic attendance protocols, it is reasonable to consider that these governing aspects of control fail to prioritize key components of client autonomy and impede aspects of expanding psychosocial support beyond clinical care. This work is part of a larger explanatory sequential mixed methods design. The qualitative component will use interviews and a graphic elicitation technique (relational mapping) to shed light on the beliefs, attitudes and implications around building and maintaining socially supportive relationships for iOAT clients. In collaboration with community partners and participants, this work will present a 3D visual art installation in the form of a living rhizomatic map to represent integrated findings and participant experiences of social support and dis/connection.
What does being a Public Scholar mean to you?
Being a public scholar honours alternate ways of knowing and sharing, filling a structural gap between academia and activism by deepening multisector engagement, fostering innovation and enhancing broader awareness of critical topics that examine and address issues through evidence-based research, policy and program development/delivery. Most importantly, it provides a direct channel for collaborative, evidence-based research to be put in service of the priority populations they focus on uplifting.
In what ways do you think the PhD experience can be re-imagined with the Public Scholars Initiative?
The PSI’s approach to supporting a broadening of scholarly outputs provides the funding to reach all audiences through creative outputs and knowledge products. The project's art installation will be a unique physical representation of the individualized and interconnected social needs of iOAT users in their own voices that is widely accessible and holds great potential to resonate across all levels of substance use care and into the public domain. As an academic, a musician and a poet, I understand the full potential of transmutation this project carries to encourage public discourse around the current structures and systems of substance use treatment service delivery that maintain the status quo without critical inquiry.
How do you envision connecting your PhD work with broader career possibilities?
This project creates space and elevates the voices of iOAT clients and community stakeholders throughout the research process to better inform my own practice, shape the direction and scope of my work and provide deliverables that are in the service of social justice, destigmatization and health equity. My path forward will focus on collaborative approaches to expand person-centered care across the continuum of mental health and substance use service development, access and delivery.
How does your research engage with the larger community and social partners?
The ongoing social alienation and criminalization of people who use drugs create critical stress points in the social landscape and polarize perspectives that work against the evidence-base supporting harm reduction initiatives, accessible program options and the expansion of effective and safer alternatives to the toxic illicit drug supply. This project prioritizes the voices of those most impacted, welcoming them into the process as equal partners, creative collaborators and subject area experts.
Why did you decide to pursue a graduate degree?
My intention was to find a professional path that would harmonize the two worlds I inhabit: theory and practice. After working in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside for over 10 years in frontline service delivery, I felt unable to adequately address some of the persistent barriers to service provision that the community members I worked alongside identified. People who use substances have consistently been at the front of healthcare and policy initiatives, and it is my goal to support them through community-based research and program evaluation to reimagine systems and optimize care.
Why did you choose to come to British Columbia and study at UBC?
Research is a touch point that influences the kinds of care people who use substances will receive, but it often stands alone without meaningful engagement, appropriate contextual framing or accessible representation. This is why I chose to come to the School of Population and Public Health at UBC, to collaboratively participate with people with lived/living expertise of substance use to inform better healthcare infrastructure from the ground up.
