A Movement to End Addiction Stigma: Background, Implementation, and 1-Year Outcomes of the Collaborative Life Unites Us Stigma Reduction Campaign Utilizing the Shatterproof Strategy

For the 20.4 million adults in America with a substance use disorder (SUD), the devastation caused by this disease can be crushing. Shatterproof, a national nonprofit organization, has dedicated its work to ending the SUD epidemic in the United States. Through identifying the most commonly cited drivers of the epidemic, Shatterproof found that seven of the top nine are either partially or entirely driven by stigma. Stigma related to SUD overlaps and intensifies with other forms of stigma and bias, such as those related to race, class, and others. However, there has not yet been a coordinated, national effort directed at reducing stigma. To this end, Shatterproof developed a first-of-its-kind strategy to end addiction stigma in the United States: A Movement to End Addiction Stigma. This strategy includes building publicly accessible, widely applicable, evidence-based resources that can be provided to multiple stakeholders for stigma reduction. Shatterproof identified several deliverables to build the foundation for national impact, anchored by implementing evidence-based statewide stigma reduction campaigns.

In September 2020 the nation’s first innovative, evidenced-based SUD stigma reduction campaign, Life Unites Us, was developed and launched through a partnership between Shatterproof, The Public Good Projects, The Pennsylvania State University, and the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. The campaign’s implementation of contact-based and collective impact approaches delivered impressive results, while rigorous mixed-methods evaluation found significant reductions in stigma statewide. This model is an important addition to stigma reduction approaches.