Social support networks have been an invaluable tool to combat addiction and other health interventions. The concept of social support networks as a powerful force in the health of substance users is well documented. Effective substance use disorder (SUD) and opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment approaches have been effectively combined with the inclusion of naturally-occurring support persons. The concept of organic social support has been under-utilized for retaining community members in SUD treatment programs.

This project aims to determine the social support networks for people with criminal justice involvement and opioid use. Once these social support networks are identified, researchers will develop policy around strengthening them to promote engagement in primary and SUD treatment.

Standard egocentric network measures will be utilized to characterize the composition and network proportion of key network members with specific attributes. These will be modeled to determine the relationship between social support and opioid care engagement. In addition, several other social network measures will be calculated at the personal network level including density, size, and bridging. These will also be examined in relation to opioid care continuum measures that are collected as part of the primary cohort data collection procedures.

Study Settings: Jails/Prisons