“There's no one-size-fits-all solution for opioid use:” A Situational Analysis Exploring Opioid Use and the Opioid Crisis
Date
2022-06-30
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Abstract
Canada is currently in the midst of an ongoing war on drugs and poisoning crisis, otherwise known as
the Opioid Crisis. Overdoses and deaths are occurring across the country in all provinces and territories.
The situation of opioid use and the Opioid Crisis is wrought with conflicts, tensions, and complexity. To
best understand the complexity of opioid use and the Opioid Crisis, the perspectives of self-identified
former opioid users were collected through a survey (n=83) and follow up interviews (n=6). Situational
Analysis (SA) was used to analyze the data to elucidate and explore the complexity of opioid use and the
Opioid Crisis from the perspectives of self-identified former opioid users. Multiple iterations of visual
maps were created to display the complexity of the situation and outline various perspectives and
contests of former opioid users. Through the analytic mapping of participant data, I identified human
and non-human elements related to opioid use and the Opioid Crisis. This includes sites of tension such
as the morality and utility of opioid use, the causality of the Opioid Crisis, and approaches to recovery
from opioid use. I review these findings within the context of the current literature and consider the
implications of the results in terms of impacts on opioid users, policy, and counselling practice.
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Keywords
opioids, opioid, substance use, drug use, heroin, fentanyl, prescription opioids, painkillers, morphine, oxycodone, situational analysis, postmodernism, social constructionism, substances, drugs, Opioid Crisis, recovery, treatment
Citation
Sapoznikow, A. J. (2022). “There's no one-size-fits-all solution for opioid use:” a situational analysis exploring opioid use and the Opioid Crisis (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.