Racial Health Inequities in Course of Illness and Recovery: Implications for Structural Competencies
Dr. Corrie Vilsaint is a principal investigator at the Recovery Research Institute and Center for Addiction Medicine and a research fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. As a community psychologist and nationally recognized speaker, her research focuses on racial health equity in remission and recovery, reducing recovery-related discrimination, building recovery capital, and the effectiveness of recovery support services.
Black Americans suffer a disproportionate burden of health and social consequences despite having lower or equivalent prevalence of substance use and disorders. Fatal overdoses among Black individuals overtook that of White individuals in 2020 for the first time since 1999. Reaching Black communities alone is not sufficient, engagement must be tailored and informed by recovery science.
Learning Objectives:
- Improve racial literacy by describing the correct interpretation of race in medicine and science
- Describe empirically identified racial inequities in course of illness, treatment, and recovery.
- Identify a structural competency in the community, clinic, and policy.