BU Researchers & Colleagues Share How to Center Racial Equity in Substance Use Research
One of the most effective ways to improve social work research is to share the unexpected lessons we learn along the way with the greater research community. A recent paper published in the American Journal of Public Health about the Helping to End Addiction Long-Term Communities Study (HEALing Communities Study or HCS) provides an overview on how researchers can be more proactive in advancing racial equity. The authors, including BUSSW researchers Linda Sprague Martinez, Deborah Chassler, and Greer Hamiltion (PhD’24) and colleagues at BU School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center, explain how study staff advocated for racial equity to be centered in the work of the study and what they learned along the way.
“HCS has vast potential to save lives and promote racial equity,” the authors explain. “Although HCS is focused on opioid use disorders, we believe these insights apply broadly to addiction research because of the way the health care system and society’s response to addiction are shaped by racism.” They stress that “as a research community, we need to critically examine and strengthen our methods of inquiry, intervention approaches, and funding practices to advance equity.”
To address structural racism, the addendum lists practical steps researchers can take:
- Formally integrate and require a racial lens early in the study.
- Get ahead of resistance to anti-racist change by creating affinity groups and safe spaces for people of color.
- Disseminate job postings at BIPOC businesses, organizations, and colleges; pay a living wage to study staff; and engage BIPOC team members in hiring decisions.
- Train and educate staff, researchers, and community partners on structural racism, health inequities, and other complex anti-racist topics.
- Meet communities where they are by engaging community experts and promoting their equity work.
- Ensure resources resonate with the Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) community by dedicating resources specifically to this end, such as translating materials in languages appropriate for the communities involved.
- Invest in data infrastructure that identifies and monitors racial and ethnic minorities throughout the study.
“The pervasiveness of structural racism and inequities in social determinants of health demand far more than study-level improvements,” say the authors. By centering racial equity at the research community level, studies are much more likely to improve outcomes among BIPOC and other groups who have been historically excluded from research and the evidence it generates.
Additional authors came from Boston University School of Medicine, Research Triangle Institute International, Boston Medical Center, Boston Public Health Commission, UK College of Education, Social Intervention Group, Montefiore Health System, Borrego Health, and Ohio State University.