TREATMENT ACCESSIBILITY DURING COVID-19: INDIVIDUAL AND TREATMENT CENTER PERSPECTIVES USING GELBERG—ANDERSEN’S BEHAVIORAL MODEL FOR VULNERABLE POPULATIONS

During COVID-19, individuals who misused alcohol and other illicit substances faced dual pandemics. At the same time as COVID-19 impacted virtually all aspects of public health, substance-related overdose death rates in the United States alone reached over 100,000, making it vastly important for researchers and practitioners alike to ensure the needs of individuals who misuse substances can access needed care. Guided by Gelberg-Anderson’s Behavioral Model for Vulnerable Populations, this study assesses both individual and treatment center characteristics that enabled care-seeking during COVID-19. Initial items for the survey were first informed by a systematic review of factors contributing to treatment receipt in the five years before the COVID-19 pandemic. The results of the study provide evidence for correlations that may be related to both predisposing, enabling, and need factors for treatment seeking among individuals and treatment center enabling factors that contributed to continuing to provide high levels of services during the COVID-19 shutdowns. Though the study suffers from limitations related to sample size and robust measures, this is an important first step to unlocking key factors that may contribute to both individual treatment receipt and treatment centers’ abilities to meet the needs of their clients – even in times of uncertainty.