Researchers have suggested that provider-based stigma of substance use disorders is one barrier to fighting the opioid epidemic. Yet, to date, virtually no study has examined provider-based stigma among law enforcement officers who are on the front line of the opioid crisis. This study attempts to fill this gap in the literature by assessing provider-based stigma toward opioid-using persons among a sample of 208 police officers working for departments located in the Northeastern Region of the United States. Results show that officers hold relatively high levels of stigma toward this vulnerable population, as measured by perceptions of dangerousness, blame, and social distance; however, comparatively, officers hold less fatalistic views toward this group of persons. Additionally, our multivariable analyses indicated that officer rank, support for the disease model of addiction, and beliefs about the demographic characteristics of a substance-using person are significantly associated with provider-based stigma among officers. Potential policy implications are discussed within.

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This article argues for conducting emancipatory narrative research with the explicit intent of transforming participants’ lives by opening up new subjective possibilities. Drawing from Megan Boler’s pedagogy of discomfort and Gubrium and Holstein’s active interviewing, a narrative research method called an inquiry of discomfort is proposed. An inquiry of discomfort emphasizes the proactive and transformative potential of research projects for both researcher and participant. The aim of an inquiry of discomfort is to identify and promote a beneficial shift from dualistic, categorical, and entrenched subjective positionality to a more ambiguous engagement with social reality. The argument is considered in light of preliminary empirical findings from a narrative pilot study of masculine heterosexual subjectivity in graduate education, conducted in the fall of 2003. Based on theoretical and empirical evidence, the general features of an inquiry of discomfort within an emancipatory narrative study are presented.

This study reviews the initial clinical experience using a portable computed tomographic (CT) scanner in the trauma resuscitation unit (TRU), intensive care units (ICUs), and operating rooms (ORs) of a large trauma center. Data were collected on the first 200 patients scanned within the trauma center (including 92 in the TRU, 92 in the ICUs, and 16 in the ORs) over the first 5 months of operation. Evaluation forms were completed by interpreting radiologists, CT technicians operating the system, and nurses~clinicians involved with patients being scanned. Information sought included subjective image quality, ease of use, software and hardware limitations, accessibility to and monitoring of patients during scanning, mobility, and perceived advantages or limitations compared to

With data collected from a representative sample of 522 Pennsylvania residents, this study measures public confidence in police and analyses public support for policing practices. Adopting a mixed-method approach, this study also analyses public desire for police reform and correlates of support for police reform. Findings reveal that participants expressed moderate levels of confidence in their local police, although confidence varied across racial groups. Despite this avowed confidence, participants also expressed desire for police reforms. The most supported reforms were those intended to increase officers’ training on mental illness, substance use dependency, and de-escalation techniques; enhance officers’ capabilities of handling critical incidents involving vulnerable populations; implement policing models that incorporate community input and oversight; and increase officer transparency and accountability. A key finding on police reform suggests that the racial divide in support for police reform is usefully informed by including, and not ignoring, significant generational, regional, and political divides. Policy implications based on these findings are discussed within.