Community Resilience: One Community’s View of Recovery from the Opioid Epidemic

Abstract

Communities across the United States are implementing strategies to support recovery from the opioid epidemic. One rural community in the Midwest with high rates of opioid use and hepatitis C adopted a recovery-oriented systems of care approach to achieve community resilience. While multiple definitions of community resilience exist, including identification of characteristics and elements of community resilience, little is found in the literature about resilience relative to the opioid epidemic. The purpose of this study was to determine how individuals, families and the community describe resilience from this epidemic to support development of a recovery-focused online data sharing hub. A community-engaged approach guided by a community resilience framework was used for this qualitative research. Three 60-min focus groups were conducted using pre-determined questions concerning what indicators reflect recovery and what data is available or desired. A grounded theory approach was used by two researchers independently to code and analyze transcripts of the recorded sessions and written notes to identify common categories. 28 individuals including those in active or long-term recovery and community service providers participated in focus group sessions. Nine categories of indicators were identified. This research project identified meaningful indicators of recovery at the individual, family, and community level, conveying an overall picture of the effectiveness of recovery efforts in this county. These results supported development of a data sharing hub to disseminate evidence of resilience and effective approaches to prevention and treatment of this public health crisis.