The article, “Advocacy for Equity Around Evidence-Based Treatments: Overview and Proceedings of the AMERSA 2023 Conference,” has been published in SAj.
This commentary provides an overview of the 2023 Association of Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance use and Addiction (AMERSA) annual conference: Advocacy for Equity Around Evidence-Based Treatments, held from November 1 to 4, 2023, in Washington, DC. The conference featured 9 interactive workshops, 106 oral abstract presentations, and 130 posters. From the pre-conference workshop to plenary sessions, paper, and poster presentations, there was a focus on addressing imbalanced social systems and structures underlying disparities. In the face of increasing drug overdose deaths, diminished access to prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery supports for racial and ethnic minorities, there is a pressing need for advocacy for equity around evidence-based treatments.
Some conference info & highlights:
As the evidence base related to substance use prevention, intervention, treatment, and recovery supports grows, it is more important than ever to ensure that those resources are equitably distributed. For example, it is well established that drug overdose deaths disproportionately affect people of color, particularly non-Hispanic Black and American Indian/Alaska Native groups. Furthermore, there is evidence that racial and ethnic minorities had buprenorphine access at lower rates compared to White beneficiaries and Medicare recipients. Advocacy is a means of promoting policies that improve health equity, but doing so effectively requires expertise and credibility. Within that context, the theme of the 2023 Association of Multidisciplinary Education and Research in Substance use and Addiction (AMERSA) annual conference was Advocacy for Equity Around Evidence-Based Treatments. This 47th Annual Meeting was held from November 1 to 4, 2023, in Washington, DC. The attendance was the largest to date, with more than 600 participants, over half of whom were first-time attendees.
To increase the representation of people with lived and living experience of substance use, a member-initiated peer recovery workforce special interest group (SIG) was launched at the conference. Most plenary sessions included a speaker with lived experience from peer recovery specialists working in rural Maryland to a mother affected by fetal alcohol spectrum disorder (FASD) to Native American researchers and healthcare professionals. For its annual networking run, AMERSA partnered for the first time with a local chapter of “Back on My Feet,” a running group that aims to empower persons experiencing homelessness, poverty, and/or addiction. “Back on My Feet” is a national organization that helps people overcome addiction and homelessness by offering resources and support through the “power of fitness, community support, and employment resources.
The pharmacist participation at the conference was the highest ever, with 27 pharmacists registered to attend. A pharmacist moderated the AMERSA Discourse, and pharmacists facilitated and delivered several oral presentations and presented posters. Sixteen pharmacists attended the inaugural pharmacists SIG. The mission of SIG is to advance and highlight pharmacist roles and leadership in interprofessional substance use disorder (SUD) care in teaching, scholarship, advocacy, and clinical service teams.