The HEALing Communities Study represents the dedication, participation, and passion of people who believed in a mission to reduce the number of lives lost to overdoses in their local communities – and they are the true heroes of our story.
The research knowledge produced from this study belongs to everyone – not just researchers, coalition members, government officials, and study organizers, but anyone who wants to play an important role in ending opioid overdoses in their community. To spread HCS knowledge, here we describe our scientific process, the information we collected, and the conclusions we drew in brief summaries and illustrations that everyone can understand and appreciate.
Community stigma is a barrier to treatment for people with opioid use disorder. HCS investigators learned that leaders championing opioid-reduction efforts in communities that received the Communities that HEAL intervention saw a significant decline in community stigma compared with those that had not received the intervention.
Learn More