Achieving Mental Health Equity: Addictions

Abstract

Despite available treatment options for addiction, there remains an abysmal uptake of treatment initiation and engagement among varying communities. The existing treatment gap is based on historical occurrences, including discriminatory drug policies that have targeted communities of color with addiction. The current opioid epidemic and differential treatment therein exemplifies the severity of the existing disparity in addiction treatment, highlighting barriers such as institutionalized racism and vulnerabilities in the social determinants of health. To mitigate the disparity, an array of solutions to address these inequities are discussed, thereby providing a pathway forward to eliminating this treatment gap.

Keywords: Addiction; Disparity; Drug policy; Inequity; Social determinants; Treatment.