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By Anna Jiang
Spending for substance abuse disorder (SUD) in the United States grew from $40.9 billion in 2000 to $139.6 billion in 2021, and the number of treatment facilities increased from approximately 11,000 in 2000 to more than 17,800 in 2024. However, certain communities remain overlooked and disregarded despite them needing just as much, if not even more, support.
One of the most prominently affected of these communities is the blind and visually impaired.
The already underserved blind and visually impaired community remains one of the most vulnerable to the opioid crisis, yet many health and prevention centers lack action. By researching and understanding the impacts, health centers can begin taking larger steps towards supporting such groups.
Visual impairment is a spectrum, ranging from those with low vision to the blind. These aspects of vision loss are untreatable by direct medical interventions such as glasses or contacts, as they’re caused internally and by damage to the eye’s structure itself. Although still seeing, individuals with low vision often struggle with daily tasks, such as “reading, driving, recognizing people’s faces, color identification, etc.” The visually impaired community is much larger than most think.
They face daily challenges and mental barriers that may prompt their descent into reliance on opioids.
In an original study done by ScienceDirect, researchers found a “significant association between vision…loss status and lifetime drug use,” which suggests a direct correlation between their unique circumstances and the quick, easy relief gained from opioids. Furthermore, once they spiral down the path of addiction, these barriers can even impede their chances at recovery.
Some specific, main barriers include lack of staff training, social isolation, stigma and high costs. When these barriers follow visual difficulties, situations often worsen, and risks increase.
The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 ensures that visually impaired individuals s have rights to equal accommodations in medical and behavioral resources as every other person. This reveals that the issue remains largely in a lack of effort to fully provide these services. Although, inevitably, many other factors contribute to this disparity, many institutions can make almost immediate changes that help impact this community and change people’s lives.
One of the changes rehabilitation centers may consider is the integration of Braille into their facility. This can range from newly “accessible literature, [and] therapy materials” to “Braille signage,” all of which will subsequently include, and even invite, blind or visually impaired individuals into feeling welcomed into such an environment.
Although at first glance this may be costly, many of today’s nonprofit groups focus on just this: aiding the blind and visually impaired by integrating Braille into everyday culture. For example, Tomorrow’s Onset Project, a youth-led nonprofit organization based in the Bay Area, partners with blind and visually impaired communities both locally and internationally with a goal to serve. They are just one of many organizations that are willing to support initiatives such as these, illustrating how this step is much more feasible than it may seem.
By initiating efforts toward a more inclusive environment regarding recovery and prevention of opioid misuse, recovery centers have the opportunity to aid these underserved communities in ways that were lacking before.
This article was written as part of a program to educate youth and others about Alameda County’s opioid crisis, prevention and treatment options. The program is funded by the Alameda County Behavioral Health Department and the grant is administered by Three Valleys Community Foundation.
