Addressing Drug-Related Stigma and Bias

Description: Drug-related stigma presents barriers to effectively supporting clients who use drugs. Our biases are learned from a culture that stigmatizes drug use and ostracizes those with substance use disorders. This three-hour training will focus on identifying our biases and societal stigma surrounding people who use drugs and actions we can take to address them.

Learning Objectives:

• Unpack drug-related stigma at the community, individual, and structural level
• Gain a framework (ladder of inference) and tools to examine personal biases and unpack them
• Learn about the manifestations of drug-related stigma in media, policies, politics, etc.
• Develop strategies to challenge workplace/community policies and culture that perpetuate stigma
• Build skills to interrupt/challenge drug-related stigma at the interpersonal level

Audience: Provider, Substance Use Services, Employees, Employers/worksites, PWUD, People in recovery, General public