In an effort to find ways to improve long-term outcomes for people with opioid use disorder, Assistant Professor of Health Promotion and Policy Elizabeth Evans set out to study the obstacles to treating this chronic condition with an effective medication, buprenorphine-naloxone. In a newly published paper in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, lead author Evans, along with researchers at UCLA and the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, identify factors that inhibit the long-term use of buprenorphine, which was approved in 2002 by the FDA to treat opioid use disorder.

In a Daily Hampshire Gazette editorial lauding Northampton City Council’s resolution to eliminate religious exemptions to childhood vaccination requirements, the editorial board quotes Community Health Education’s Gloria DiFulvio.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently awarded Luis A. Valdez, Assistant Professor of Community Health Education in the Department of Health Promotion and Policy, a two-year, $101,090 Administrative Supplement to Promote Diversity in Health-Related Research award. The grant will fund a project titled “MOCHA Latino: An Investigation of Stress and Chronic Disease Prevention in Low-Income Latino Men,” an extension of an ongoing five-year, community-based participatory research (CBPR) project led by Professor Emeritus David Buchanan with Springfield’s Men of Color Health Awareness (MOCHA) group.

Digital storytelling (DST) has becoming increasingly common as a tool for applied health interventions, with particular relevance for community-engaged research with marginalized populations. With its emphasis on community engagement, shared decision making and planning, and collaborative approach to identifying solutions to address health inequities, health promotion practitioners have found it to be an increasingly valuable and reliable tool.