RESUMO
Background and Aims: No recovery related surveillance system exists but given the evidence of effectiveness and growing supply, a house- and resident- level recovery house (RH) surveillance system could be beneficial for data collection on recovery support service (RSS) engagement, and retention; for improved standardization of RH programs and services; and for identification of outcomes associated with long-term recovery. Methods: This study aimed to explore current data collection practices at the resident- and house- level through qualitative focus interviews of RH representatives. The 13 RH interviews were scheduled with 16 RH representative respondents. Results: The most frequently collected resident data was at entry (92%) and departure (85%) and included demographics (n = 5), substance use history (n = 6), treatment and recovery history (n = 5), legal and correctional history (n = 6) and mental health information (n = 7). Recovery support data was collected by 85% of houses. Post-stay data was only collected by four RHs (31%). Conclusion: These results indicate that there is a lack of standardized systematic collection, analysis, and reporting of recovery related data in the RH field. A recovery related surveillance system has the potential to fill this gap and inform and improve standard of resident care to support long-term recovery from substance use disorder.
RESUMO
Background: Individuals with substance use disorder (SUD) and recovery support services often face significant social stigma, especially in rural areas. One method of addressing stigma is through education and personal recovery stories. It is unclear if such messages will work similarly across rural and non-rural areas. Methods: We conduct an exploratory analysis of data from a national randomized controlled trial (N = 2,721) to determine if there are differences in the effectiveness of messages at reducing stigma across rurality. Specifically, we test four interventions to reduce stigma: education about the effectiveness of recovery housing and three versions of a personal recovery story that varied social distance and delivery medium (identified written story, anonymous written story, and video). Results: We find that messages may not have the same effect across rurality, with non-rural participants in the identified and anonymous written recovery story groups having lower stigma scores and only rural participants exposed to the anonymous written story having lower stigma scores compared to their counterparts in the control group. Further, non-rural participants exposed to both written story treatments had higher positive feelings towards those in recovery compared to the control group, but only rural participants in the anonymous written story group had higher positive feelings compared to the control group. Conclusion: Our results suggest that messages may have different effects on stigma across rurality and that rural participants' beliefs may be particularly hard to change. Future research should examine what types of stigma reduction interventions are most effective in rural areas.
RESUMO
Recovery housing provides substance-free living environments that use peer-support to empower individuals in recovery from substance use disorder. This study estimated the total revenue of the recovery housing industry from recovery houses, nationwide.Using survey data collected in June and July of 2020, we calculate the total revenue of the recovery housing industry and determine the share of revenue that comes from different sources for rural and nonrural houses.We find that individual recovery houses operate with an annual revenue of $250,000 and the whole industry accounts for $4.5 billion annually. COVID-19 has reduced industry revenue by 4%. Rural and nonrural houses differ significantly in their sources of revenue.Our results suggest that COVID-19 reduced the size of the recovery housing industry. Houses in nonrural regions may need more federal support due to the relatively high reliance on resident fees, which may be unreliable during COVID-19.