The 130th Annual Meeting of APHA

Abstract #36810

Juliana E. van Olphen, School of Health Sciences, Program in Urban Public Health, Hunter College, 425 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010, 212-481-5154, vjuliana@hunter.cuny.edu, Nicholas Freudenberg, DrPH, City University of New York, Program in Urban Public Health at Hunter College, 425 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010, Sandro Galea, MD, MPH, New York Academy of Medicine, New York Academy of Medicine, 1216 5th Avenue, New York, NY 10029, Ann-Gel Palermo, Institute for Medicare Practice, 1200 Fifth Avenue, Suite 2a, Box 1062, New York, NY 10029, and Cassandra Ritas, Center on AIDS, Drugs, and Community Health, Hunter College, 425 East 25th Street, 13th Floor, New York, NY 10010.

Each year about 100,000 people return to New York City communities from the city jails. It is estimated that about 13% of those return to Upper Manhattan, a total of 16, 250 people a year or 45 a day. In New York City, about 80% of jail inmates report a substance abuse problem. In this paper, we describe the first stages of a campaign to advocate for policies that promote successful reintegration of substance users leaving jail and returning to two New York City neighborhoods: Central and East Harlem. Public health initiatives to address complex problems like substance use increasingly call for community-based partnerships that engage researchers and communities as equal partners in creating change, however little is known on how best to integrate policy analysis and advocacy into community-based activities. We describe the evolution of the community-based participatory research center that initiated this project, and show how the complex nature of the drug problem in Central and East Harlem called for the development of a multi-level intervention targeting the different pathways through which substance abuse affects health. We will focus on the use of a community-based participatory approach to develop a policy-level intervention to reduce the harm caused by substance use. The goal is to reduce policy barriers to reintegration so as to reduce substance use, HIV risk, and promote community safety. Finally, we explore the strengths and challenges of developing and implementing a policy intervention within a community-based participatory research framework.

Learning Objectives:

• To identify important components of a model for integrating policy advocacy and analysis into a community-based participatory framework.
• To describe strengths and weaknesses of a community-based approach to policy advocacy.

Keywords: Substance Abuse, Community Participation

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.