Fighting the Opioid Epidemic: Transforming Community Health and Social Connections in Rural Areas of the U.S.

Dolores Albarracín, the Amy Gutmann Penn Integrates Knowledge University Professor, has long studied how to curb disease and improve health.

Now, Albarracín, and her team in the Social Action Lab, a collaboration between the Annenberg School, the Annenberg Public Policy Center, and the School of Arts and Sciences, are working with people in the parts of the United States most vulnerable to HIV and Hepatitis C (HCV) infection spread — rural communities in Appalachia and the Midwest, the frontlines of the substance use and methamphetamine disorder epidemic.

In partnership with a network of leaders from state health agencies, county health departments, and local nonprofits in these areas, Albarracín, her research team and local community members have spent five years preparing and a year testing an intervention to promote HIV and HCV prevention, increase well-being and reduce the stigma of substance use in these areas.