Project dates: January 2025 - June 2028
This multi-site ethnographic project examines how opioid-related policies, treatment models, and funding are translated into practice across Central and Upstate New York. Fieldwork is centered in Chenango County/Norwich and Oneida County/Utica, with comparative research in Broome County/Binghamton, Albany, and Rochester. Research participants include county and state government officials, nonprofit leaders, public health professionals, treatment and harm-reduction providers, frontline staff, peer organizations, and people with lived experience.
Methods include semi-structured interviews, participant observation in service settings and community and interagency meetings, service-system mapping, and analysis of policy, funding, training, and organizational documents. The research follows relationships among organizations and levels of government to understand how systems of prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery operate in practice. A central component examines how institutions define and measure successful opioid treatment and recovery and how these metrics shape programs, funding priorities, and experiences of care. The project also examines opioid settlement implementation, policy and funding changes, rural-urban differences, and the administrative and relational work required to coordinate services across fragmented systems.