An exploratory study on the impact of the opioid epidemic on providers.

Abstract

This interprofessional explanatory mixed-methods research project sought to determine the impact of unanticipated deaths experienced by providers in relation to their work with persons diagnosed with a specific substance use disorder. Quantitative data were collected via the Professional Quality of Life scale, and qualitative questions were posed in an open-ended survey. The findings (N = 40) suggest that the unanticipated death of persons seeking treatment is experienced by providers as a grief response similar to disenfranchised loss, in that it affects both the provider’s sense of productivity as well as their personal self-care. The implications of this study suggest that “providers are grieving at work—about work.” As such, program administrators are encouraged to ameliorate the impact of the opioid epidemic through interprofessional integrative supports that acknowledge the impact of unanticipated deaths by providers. Future research is encouraged to better understand if the motivation for a professional initially entering this specific field mitigates the impact of unanticipated deaths.

“We were building the plane as we were flying it, and we somehow made it to the other end”: syringe service program staff experiences and well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…SSP staff, a unique segment of the US public health workforce, have been instrumental in carrying out pandemic response efforts but may experience elevated risk for occupational burnout. Prior to the pandemic, SSP staff had been repeatedly exposed to secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and burnout from working in the context of the opioid overdose epidemic [16][17][18][19][20]. Many SSP staff have a history of substance use or identify as being "in recovery" [1] and are intimately connected to the communities they serve [27][28][29][30][31].…”

“…Through the provision of essential public health services during the COVID-19 pandemic, SSP staff may have been susceptible to occupational burnout and stressors similar to those experienced among frontline healthcare workers, particularly during a time when public health and infection control recommendations were evolving [8,9]. Even prior to the emergence of SARS-CoV-2, SSP staff were constantly exposed to poverty, drug use, and a high prevalence of drug-related overdose in the communities they served, leading to high levels of secondary traumatic stress, compassion fatigue, and burnout [16][17][18][19][20]. Emerging literature from the COVID-19 pandemic era has described changes in SSP operations and explored occupational burnout from the perspectives of non-SSP health workers; however, no studies to our knowledge have explored the impact of the pandemic on the well-being of the SSP workforce.…”

Exploring Reliability and Validity for the Professional Quality of Life Scale

“…The Resident Assistant (RA) data comes from a small, rural, non-profit co-educational academic institution in the Midwest over a period of time from 2019-2020 (McClure et al, in press). The Substance Abuse Professional (SAP) data comes from participants recruited via addictions/social work professional group membership listservs and diverse interprofessional practice communities where substance abuse treatment and intervention were provided (Anderson et al, 2021).…”

Emotional Exhaustion and Turnover Intentions among Counselors in Rural Substance Use Disorder Treatment Programs

“…Related to secondary trauma could be the impact that overdose deaths have on counselors (Winstanley, 2020). A recent study found that all the counselors they sampled (n = 40) had experienced at least one opioid-related death among the clients with whom they worked, which led to compassion fatigue (Anderson et al, 2022). Given the increasing number of overdose deaths since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic (Hedegaard et al, 2021), compassion fatigue and counselor burnout likely have gotten worse in the past two years.…”