5 - (SYM 7) Partnering with the Black Community to Inform How to Better Target Racial Stressors in Alcohol Treatment

Although Black adults do not experience the highest prevalence of alcohol use disorders, they tend to experience more alcohol-related problems relative to other racial and ethnic groups. Further, less than 8% of Black people receive alcohol treatment. Among those who attend treatment, satisfaction and retention tends to be low. The data are mixed on treatment outcomes; some studies suggest comparable treatment outcomes whereas others report worse outcomes among Black adults relative to other racial and ethnic groups. Therefore, there is a need to identify approaches to adapt alcohol treatment to increase treatment satisfaction, retention, and outcomes among Black adults. Extensive research documents the association between stress and alcohol craving and use. In addition, minoritized stress theories purport that people with minoritized identities experience stress related to their minoritized identities like racial stress. Black people experience among the highest prevalence of racial stressors relative to other racial and ethnic groups. Examples of racial stressors Black people experience include overt racism (e.g., being called racial slurs like the n-word), covert racism or microaggressions (e.g., assumed poor intelligence), vicarious racism (learning about the murder of a Black person due to police brutality or white vigilantes), and stereotype threat (fear of perpetuating racial stereotypes). Therefore, attending to racial stress is one approach to adapt alcohol treatment. To inform how to incorporate racial stress in alcohol treatment, we will qualitatively interview Black adults with alcohol use disorder (AUD) to learn their perspective. In addition, we will invite Black people with AUD to join the research team as we develop alcohol treatment adaptations. We anticipate adapting the coping with craving module of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for alcohol use disorder to specifically address racial stressors. In addition, we will rely on findings from our past research including the qualitative interviews to inform additional adaptations. Given the recent developments of racial stress and trauma treatments, we will consider how these treatment components might be incorporated in alcohol treatment based on feedback from our community partners. Attending to factors especially relevant to Black adults like racial stress could help them to feel that treatment is for them and that all their experiences are welcome and worthy of discussing in treatment, which could enhance treatment satisfaction, retention, and outcomes.