Abstract
People with disabilities (PWD) are an overlooked health
disparity population who routinely experience stigma, discrimination, ableism,
and lower socioeconomic status. Barriers to health care are generally high for
PWD, and despite over three decades of the Americans with Disabilities Act,
many health care settings including addiction treatment are not fully
accessible for PWD. The INROADS portfolio stems from two projects: (1) INROADS
(NIDILRR 90DPGE0007) and (2) INROADS-Alcohol (NIAAA R01AA031236), each of which
examine the intersection between substance use and risky use, addiction,
disability, and addiction treatment services. Both studies focus on the broad population of PWD, as well as subpopulations such as those
with vision or hearing impairments, mobility impairment or spinal cord injury, acquired brain injury including TBI, intellectual and developmental disabilities including those with autism, and serious mental illness.
The original INROADS project, or Intersecting Research on
Opioid Misuse, Addiction, and Disability Services, was a joint research program
between Brandeis University’s Institute for Behavioral Health and its Lurie
Institute for Disability Policy. It examined the intersection between
addiction, disability, and service provision in an effort to address the rise
of opioid use disorders (OUD) among people with disabilities. INROADS-A
(INROADS-Alcohol) is an active joint research program between Brandeis
University’s Institute for Behavioral Health and Boston University School of
Public Health’s Department of Health Law, Policy and Management, which builds
on the foundational INROADS research with a focus on alcohol use disorder.
The original INROADS project laid a foundation for
understanding the intersection of disability with opioid use disorder, and traumatic brain injury (TBI) with at-risk opioid
use and consequences, and INROADS-A seeks to better understand alcohol use
patterns, treatment needs, and alcohol use disorder (AUD) treatment access,
quality and outcomes for people with disabilities.