PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The opioid crisis has escalated dramatically among women: from 1999 to 2019, the rate of opioid-related
overdoses among females increased from 1.4 to 9.3 per 100,000 population. Women face many unique
challenges in obtaining treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD). These barriers include caretaking
responsibilities and child custody concerns. Additionally, through a phenomenon known as “telescoping,”
women have a shorter duration of opioid use before meeting the clinical criteria for OUD compared to men.
Further complicating the treatment landscape for women with OUD is that they often present for treatment with
more severe comorbidities than men do. These gendered differences highlight the importance of women-
centered strategies for engagement in care, a critical step in the OUD Cascade of Care. To address these
gendered needs and barriers to care, a novel women-centered recovery navigation system is proposed.
Patient navigator programs are an evidence-based intervention that address disparities and destigmatize
seeking care for vulnerable populations. While available for a range of chronic health issues, they have not
been widely implemented or evaluated for women with OUD. Ultimately, the proposed recovery navigation
system will combine a web-based platform with personalized, women-centered recovery navigator services,
and will use a hybrid approach that connects women to both virtual and in-person services. This recovery
navigation system will serve as a gateway to services that meet women’s unique needs through increasing
awareness of service and resource availability, as well as normalizing and destigmatizing seeking treatment for
OUD among women. Women in recovery from OUD will guide development through a structured community-
engaged intervention development framework. The objectives of this project are to advance understanding of
barriers to engagement in care for women with OUD and to create a women-centered recovery navigation
system. These objectives will be achieved through the following specific aims: 1) identify key barriers to
engagement in care for women with OUD, as well as potential solutions; 2) develop and evaluate a pilot
women-centered recovery navigator program; and 3) develop and evaluate a web-based recovery platform to
engage women with OUD in care. Analyses will be completed using both qualitative and quantitative methods.
Upon completion of the proposed 5-year project and under the guidance of my mentorship team, I will advance
my expertise in (1) community-engaged research strategies, (2) the theory and neurobiology of opioid
dependence among women, and (3) intervention design. I will also have the data necessary to scale up and
refine this women-centered recovery navigation system, and will submit an R01 application to do so by the
beginning of year 5 of the award period. Taken together, I will be in a position to establish myself as an
independent investigator focused on developing and adapting evidence-based, women-centered interventions
that tangibly improve the health outcomes of women struggling with OUD and addiction across the life course.
