142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition

Annual Meeting Recordings are now available for purchase

307461
Not ashamed but still too poor - Longitudinal changes in barriers to treatment entry for online treatment seekers

142nd APHA Annual Meeting and Exposition (November 15 - November 19, 2014): http://www.apha.org/events-and-meetings/annual
Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Adi Jaffe, PhD , Alternatives Behavioral Health, LLC, Los Angeles, CA
Not ashamed but still too poor - Longitudinal changes in barriers to treatment entry for online treatment seekers.

Aims: To identify and recruit online treatment seekers and examine their treatment entry behavior and related barriers over a period of six months. 

Methods: Online treatment seekers were recruited through an online SUD treatment finder (www.allaboutaddiction.com/Rehab-Finder) after completing online screening, followed by eligibility determination and an online informed consent. Participants were then emailed links to online assessments, delivered via Survey Monkey, to be completed within 24 hours of initial screening and again at one-week, one-month, and six-months following initial screening.

Results: Forty participants were recruited, presenting broad variability in gender (Female = 60%), age (M = 32, SD = 8.6), and geography (10 States represented). Reported barriers to treatment entry at baseline replicated previous findings with stigma, shame, inability to share the problem, cost, and access all presenting as significant barriers. Follow up assessments supported substantial shifts in barriers with stigma and shame becoming less prominent while cost and access increased in magnitude. Some differences based on gender, actual treatment-entry and past treatment experience were found.

Conclusions: Treatment-seeking individuals report changes in the reasons for not entering treatment as they progress through the treatment-seeking process. While stigma and shame are substantial barriers at initial seeking they become less important. Research into the process through which some barriers become less obstructive, and the role that online treatment- and information-seeking play in this process, could help accelerate barriers removal and facilitate earlier SUD treatment entry.

Learning Areas:

Other professions or practice related to public health
Planning of health education strategies, interventions, and programs
Public health or related research
Social and behavioral sciences

Learning Objectives:
List barriers to treatment entry Compare which barriers prove most impactful depending on which phase of treatment seeking participant is in Asses the role which online treatment seeking behavior plays in the process of treatment entry

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I have been studying issues related to drug-addiction, sex-addiction, and gambling-addiction for the past 8 years. I’ve been heavily involved in research on related conditions like HIV, Hepatitis, depression, and ADHD as well, making my understanding of addiction issues broad and varied. I created the website All About Addiction and the program A3 Rehab Finder.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.