Transdisciplinary Approaches to the Opioid Crisis
The Contributions of Social and Behavioral Research in Addressing the Opioid Crisis meeting convened a transdisciplinary array of experts to address the opioid crisis in the US.
We look at the whole picture, the entire lived experience that influences health.
Our work examines health through many lenses that intersect, and it often helps people who are underserved or experiencing trauma — for example, veterans suffering from PTSD, children with serious illness, low-income residents grappling with systemic racism and neglect, and others.
The Contributions of Social and Behavioral Research in Addressing the Opioid Crisis meeting convened a transdisciplinary array of experts to address the opioid crisis in the US.
Read commentary by Nova Scholar Fred Foote, who argues that health treatments for veterans and all Americans ought to include proven, non-medical interventions such as
While new technologies for earlier detection and more effective treatment are critical, we urge equal attention to the wider environmental ecosystems driving the noncommunicable disease (NCD) crisis in the first place.
UMD’s culinary medicine curriculum focuses on an experiential approach that is practically oriented. Students look at different types of diets such as Mediterranean, Paleo, Keto and plant-based to better understand the science behind them.
Institute Fellow Chris D’Adamo’s Culinary Health and Medicine Program was featured in a great article from The Daily Record, discussing the importance of a complementary health approach,
TIIH Scholar Judy Rollins’ research on art in healing spaces was featured in a great article from The New Yorker. “Rollins cites fifteen different “intents” for hospital
Institute Scholar Dr. Steven Woolf‘s recent study revealed that between 2018-2020 U.S. life expectancy dropped by a huge margin and disproportionately impacted Black and Hispanic populations,
Institute Founders Brian Berman and Susan Hartnoll Berman explore how the path to improving health involves not just medicine but an understanding of all the dynamic processes that contribute to wellbeing: economics, nutrition, work, relationships, the environment.
Scholar Rebecca Etz‘s Larry A. Green Center is among several voices pushing for primary care providers to have a stake in COVID-19 vaccine distribution, as many
Institute Scholar Rebecca Etz was recognized for her commitment to “comprehensive, coordinated, person-focused care” and awarded the Barbara Starfield Primary Care Leadership Award. Watch the video here.
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Over the past thirty years, we’ve been part of a movement to shift the primary approach to health from a focus on disease to a more complete approach. As reflected in our tagline, “For Health of People, Places, and Planet,” how we are building on “person health” and looking at the context of peoples’ lives and communities as well as the health of the planet we all share.
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Healing is facilitated through safety, persistence, and trust.
Resources support us as we heal. They include reframing, responsibility, and positivity. “Making connections enabled participants to acquire and refine resources and skills that were essential in their healing journey. People also brought their own personal strengths to the journey.”
“Connection to others was an essential part of all the healing journeys.” Humans are social creatures, and even the most introverted of us need close relationships. Friends and family add meaning and value to life and help support us, in good times and bad.
When we experience relational trauma, relationships can feel scary, but reestablishing safety and trust in relationships is where the healing happens. (To be clear, we do not mean reestablishing safety and trust with abusers, but rather finding other healing relationships.)
“When safety and trust had been established, people were able to connect with helpers. The nature of the behaviours of helpers that fostered healing ranged from small acts of kindness to unconditional love.”
Healing probably means different things to different people, but one definition that emerged from the study is: “The re-establishment of a sense of integrity and wholeness.”
Healing was an emergent property that resulted from each individuals’ complex healing journey, a result of bridged connections between resources and relationships. “…they gradually found relief from suffering and began to exhibit emergent characteristics: a sense of hope, self-acceptance, and a desire to help others—the immediate precursors to healing.”
In varying degrees, “they were able to transcend their suffering and in some sense to flourish.”
Suffering is the ongoing pain from wounding.
There is debate about whether or not one actually needs to experience suffering on the path to healing.
Wounding happens when we experience physical or emotional harm. It can stem from chronic illness or by physical or psychological trauma for which we do not have the tools to cope, or a combination of those factors.
“The degree and quality of suffering experienced by each individual is framed by contextual factors that include personal characteristics, timing of their initial or ongoing wounding in the developmental life cycle and prior and current relationships.”
Characteristics: How predisposed someone may be to wounding/how many tools and resources someone may have to deal with trauma/illness.
Lifestages: Developmental timing plays an important role in the impact of trauma — young children often do not have the same resources as older adults.
Relationships: Relationships can provide solace and support for those suffering, while lack of healthy relationships can prolong suffering.