Connecting the Dots: Understanding Biopsychosocial Factors Influencing Opioid Use Treatment Outcomes for Rural Adults

Abstract

Opioid use disorder (OUD) remains an intractable problem, especially in rural areas. Social workers are key players in efforts to address and treat rural opioid use disorder because of the profession’s person-in-environment (PIE) perspective. PIE helps fine-tune strategies addressing persistent issues contributing to rural opioid use. The purposes of this article are: first, to present key findings from a secondary analysis study examining substance use treatment episode data collected by a U.S. state Office of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services ( N = 2,746) for biopsychosocial PIE factors influencing treatment outcomes for rural adults; and second, to discuss important social work roles. The data suggest that understanding influential biopsychosocial factors, promoting integrated and interprofessional collaboration, and training OUD service providers to use social work’s PIE framework could shape more positive responses to OUD treatment in rural settings.