What We Do Matters: A Documentary Style Video to Address Healthcare Stigma Toward People Who Use Substances

Stigma toward people with substance use disorders (SUDs) has been documented across health professions and is associated with negative impacts.

We created a freely available, documentary-style video intervention aimed at reducing SUD stigma among healthcare workers. The video features narrative from people with SUD and commentary by healthcare workers experienced in addiction treatment. Participants working in clinical and non-clinical roles viewed and briefly discussed the video documentary, and were asked to complete a pre- and post-survey that included the Medical Condition Regard Scale (MCRS). We evaluated differences in attitudes among participants completing both surveys using paired t-tests.

Four hundred seventy-one people completed a pre-survey, 366 completed a post-survey, and of these, 276 provided paired responses. Among paired responses, 63% were from medical students, 19% medical providers, 3% residents/fellows, 9% clinical staff, and 6% non-clinical staff and pharmacists. Attitudes endorsed were highly positive prior to the intervention with a mean MCRS score of 52.3 ± 7.8 (range 6-66). Scores increased to 55.2 ± 7.6, P < .001, pre to post. Change was positive across items, indicating stronger agreement with non-stigmatizing attitudes and treatment optimism, and greater disagreement with negative attitudes and treatment pessimism. Improvements were seen across roles, and these changes were significant (P < .05) in all but 2 small subgroups: non-clinical staff (n = 14) and residents/fellows (n = 8).

Viewing a freely available documentary-style video featuring personal narrative from patients with SUD and commentary from SUD-focused professionals was effective in reducing healthcare worker stigma toward people with SUDs and in anticipating the positive impact of treatment encounters.