Steven Samra, MPA, Senior Associate, served for nine years as Deputy Director for SAMHSA's Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy (BRSS TACS) and has served in leadership capacities for SAMHSA’s Housing and Homelessness Resource Network, Projects for Assistance in Transition from Homelessness, and Services in Supportive Housing Technical Assistance Center and has led numerous peer involvement initiatives. As a core Recovery team member for SAMHSA’s Opioid Response Network (ORN), Steven provides virtual and onsite training and technical assistance across a diverse cross-section of behavioral health and recovery supports and services.

 

Course description: Session starts with an overview of the types of stigma and how stigma moves beyond the target to affect others within his/her orbit. Session then provides a review of how stigma is used, and explanation of the cycle of stigma is provided. The session discusses how illnesses can exacerbate stigma, and transitions to a discussion and brief video of implicit bias. Video and discussion drills into the impact of bias, the need for cultural competence and humility, and the importance of recovery-oriented language when engaging with individuals. Session continues by briefly exploring the positive impact that trauma informed, strengths based, person centered approaches have on improving the quality of care. The session finishes with several strategies to rapidly identify and reduce stigma within the organization and staff. Strategies include language audit, getting beyond bias, a resource to perform bias self-checks, the role of policy makers, and what individuals can do to deconstruct, reduce, and eliminate stigma consistently.
Course objectives:

1. Identify and describe three types of stigma.
2. Explain intervention and courtesy stigmas.
3. Explain bias.
4. the impact of implicit bias and why it matters.
5. Discuss the importance of person-first language to reduce stigma.
6. List at least two strategies for reducing stigma and bias.
7. Discuss the impact people in recovery have when promoting/perpetuating stigma and
8. bias towards certain recovery pathways.