Maxwell School News and Commentary

A group comprised of four researchers — representing the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion and the Maxwell X Lab — will receive approximately $500,000 over three years in support of their research on different opioid court treatment interventions across New York State. 

While the urban opioid crisis is a crisis of heroin and illegal drugs, the rural opioid crisis of prescription drugs is largely a story of growing spatial inequality and of places left behind, most often occurring in places that tend to have a declining industrial base, finds a study co-authored by Shannon Monnat, Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion.

“Many people who misuse opioids are also misusing other substances, and a common driver of this is self-medicating,” says Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion, whose research examines the connections between social disadvantage, place, public policy and health.