Stigma & Communication

Stigma remains a major barrier to addiction care, affecting treatment-seeking, clinician attitudes and policy. The session covers person-first language (NIDA and ASAM language guides), anti-stigma campaigns and their measurable effectiveness, healthcare-provider implicit bias and its impact on prescribing, media portrayal of addiction in news and entertainment, the patient-experience implications of stigmatising language, and the policy levers for stigma reduction. Discussion addresses self-stigma and treatment engagement, recovery-language frameworks for journalists and policymakers, employer drug-testing policies and their stigma effects, and emerging evidence on how stigma reduction translates into treatment-uptake improvement in specific populations.