B Ostrach
Biographic Data
| ID | 19913 |
|---|---|
| NAME | B Ostrach |
| GIVEN NAMES | B |
| FAMILY NAME | Ostrach |
| SIGNATURE | OSTRACH B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boston University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-2803-3747 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 30 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
“If You’re Willing to Work…We Can Work With You”
INTRODUCTION: "Work therapy" is not an evidence-based treatment for substance use disorders. Nevertheless, many substance use service providers impose labor obligations. The purpose of this study was to describe the prevalence and correlates of obligatory labor at providers of residential substance use services in North Carolina. METHODS: This audit study surveyed residential substance use service providers in North Carolina, systematically colle…
“Methadone at the pharmacy like Suboxone®?… It would untangle a lot of tangles.” Perspectives of North Carolinians with lived experience of opioid use on potential benefits of methadone dispensing at …
BACKGROUND: Medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD), including methadone, reduce overdoses, overdose deaths, hospitalizations, and all-cause mortality. Yet existing literature widely documents barriers to methadone access for people with opioid use disorder (OUD) in the U.S. and aspects of methadone treatment that U.S. patients find challenging, including inconvenient hours, limited locations, and clinic policies and staff treatment sometimes …
The public health impacts of drug-induced homicide laws
BACKGROUND: Drug-induced homicide (DIH) laws are state laws that confer criminal liability equivalent to homicide or manslaughter for the sale or delivery of drugs subsequently associated with a fatal overdose. METHODS: We undertook a scoping review of literature on the public health impacts of DIH laws and held focus groups to seek guidance on the interpretation of review results from three directly-impacted community groups: public health and h…
Examining geographic disparities in access to no‐cost naloxone in North Carolina
PURPOSE: The objective of this study was to comprehensively identify the programs that distribute naloxone at no-cost in North Carolina, identify where and to whom these programs distribute naloxone, and evaluate disparities in reported naloxone distribution by geographic area. METHODS: A cross-sectional online survey was delivered to potential no-cost naloxone distributors in NC identified by a community advisory panel. Descriptive statistics an…
Building Castles, Building Community
Human tower‐building ( castells ) is a historically integral part of Catalan culture that has come to be practised by refugee and migrant arrivals as well as Catalan‐born residents. Though much has been written about historical and cultural meanings of the practice and its potential for serving as a mechanism of social integration of migrants, little existing literature explores what being a Casteller means to those who participate or how they un…
“When people who use drugs can’t differentiate between medical care and cops, it’s a problem.” Compounding risks of law Enforcement Harassment & Punitive Healthcare Policies
On Race and Place in Substance Use Research
Factors associated with perceived ease of access to syringes in Appalachian North Carolina
PURPOSE: To examine associations between perceived ease of syringe access, syringe sources, injection behaviors, and law enforcement (LE) interactions among people who inject drugs (PWID) in rural Appalachian North Carolina (NC). METHODS: Using respondent-driven sampling, a diverse sample of 309 self-reported PWID were recruited from rural Appalachian NC. Data were collected via audio computer-assisted self-interview technology from February 2019…
Marginalised People's Access to Publicly Funded Abortion in Catalunya
Abortion has been legal in Catalunya for any reason in the first trimester and under a set of qualifying circumstances in the second since 2010 and integrated in the health system. Earlier studies identified disparities in access. Through rapid ethnographic assessment (REA) at a Barcelona clinic, this study sought to compare the findings of an earlier phase of REA previously published in this journal with subsequent data collection to determine c…
Syndemics and intersectionality
There Are No “Addicted” Babies in Appalachia
Substance use and the contexts that surround it have caused real harm in Appalachia. Part of this pain may be attributed to substance use itself, but much is also due to our collective reaction to substance use and people who use drugs. The confluence of stigmas against Appalachians, people who are poor, and people who use drugs, as well as the intense surveillance of caregivers, have produced interpersonal violence within medical, social service…
From the Front Lines of the Appalachian Addiction Crisis
An examination of telehealth policy impacts on initial rural opioid use disorder treatment patterns during the Covid‐19 pandemic
PURPOSE: Tracking changes in care utilization of medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) services before, during, and after COVID-19-associated changes in policy and service delivery in a mixed rural and micropolitan setting. METHODS: Using a retrospective, open-cohort design, we examined visit data of MOUD patients at a family medicine clinic across three identified periods: pre-COVID, COVID transition, and COVID. Outcome measures include the …
Covid‐19 and Rural Harm Reduction Challenges in the US Southern Mountains
Overdose deaths and some other consequences of substance use and its criminalization are greater in rural areas, particularly Appalachia1, 2 and other parts of the Mountain South. With health care shortages and underfunding of social services in rural areas3 and in the South predating COVID-19-related disruptions, rural Harm Reduction4 i programs are more likely to lack sufficient resources.5 A recent study6 focused on mostly urban sites in north…
The harms of punishing substance use during pregnancy
Drug induced homicide laws may worsen opioid related harms
Syndemics
In this review, we trace the origins and dissemination of syndemics, a concept developed within critical medical anthropology that rapidly diffused to other fields. The goal is to provide a review of the literature, with a focus on key debates. After a brief discussion of the nature and significance of syndemic theory and its applications, we trace the history and development of the syndemic framework within anthropology and the contributions of …
Publicly Funded Abortion and Marginalised People’s Experiences in Catalunya
Abortion law reforms enacted in Spain in 2010 and extended to Catalunya expanded access to abortion. Simultaneously, the autonomous region was affected by economic crisis and austerity, affecting access to care for migrant and marginalised populations. Mixed-method ethnographic data were collected in relation to low-income and immigrant women seeking abortion in two phases: (1) 2012–2013 and (2) early 2016. Data sources included surveys, intervie…
Applied Training in a Medical Anthropology Master's Program
Learning practical skills is key to becoming an applied anthropologist. For my MS degree, I chose a program at Boston University School of Medicine that incorporates skills development into the curriculum through its Service-Learning Internship Program (SLIP). The SLIP facilitates students' familiarity with their field site throughout the first year, before they start summer fieldwork. My SLIP and thesis fieldwork took place in a VA hospital's pa…
From Medical Anthropology at a Medical School to Careers in Community-Based Applied Anthropology
This article discusses the origins and development of the MS Program in Medical Anthropology in the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences at Boston University School of Medicine. We review how our faculty identified the need for the program as well as how we developed its design and negotiated the degree curriculum and requirements. We trace the evolution of our Service-Learning Internship Program (SLIP) and its establishment at various facilitie…
Exploration of the STOP Act and Opioid Deaths in North Carolina, 2010–2018
Objectives. To examine the impact of North Carolina’s 2017 Strengthening Opioid Misuse Prevention (STOP) Act on opioid overdose deaths. Methods. We used quarterly data from the North Carolina Opioid Dashboard to conduct an interrupted time series analysis ranging from 2010 to 2018. Results were stratified by heroin–fentanyl deaths and other opioid deaths. Results. After the STOP Act, there was an initial rate increase of 0.60 opioid deaths per 10…
A colonial legacy of HIV/Aids, NTD, and STI super-syndemics
Syndemics theory has been applied to the structurally shaped, biologically facilitated co-occurrence of HIV/AIDS with Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and with sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The biological and social pathways of interaction between all three ailments have not yet been analysed together. The effects of these diseases are often exacerbated by structural factors including access to care and socioeconomic status. We explor…
Syndemics and the biosocial conception of health
From Research to Policy Change
Women seeking abortion frequently encounter barriers that may be socioeconomic, logistical, or social. Of particular concern for policy development, women of lower socioeconomic status are more affected by these barriers (Jones and Weitz 2009). The focus of this article is to describe the process by which applied medical anthropology research was transformed into a joint medical anthropology/public health effort to reduce these barriers. The desi…
Navigating Social and Institutional Obstacles
Nearly half of all women in the United States will have at least one abortion during their lifetime, and many will encounter economic, logistical, and/or social obstacles while attempting to undergo the procedure. The purpose of this project was to examine the abortion-seeking experiences of a volunteer sample of Oregon women, to identify key barriers and the strategies women employed to overcome them. Using a mixed-methods approach combining sur…
At special risk
Women are at special risk for HIV/AIDS infection and disease progression due to an inter-related set of biopolitical factors. Biological factors that contribute to women’s special vulnerability include hormonal, developmental, and immunological characteristics. Social and political factors such as poverty, gendered power relationships, and violence interact with biological factors to create an HIV risk profile among women. The approach of this pa…
Syndemics
In this review, we trace the origins and dissemination of syndemics, a concept developed within critical medical anthropology that rapidly diffused to other fields. The goal is to provide a review of the literature, with a focus on key debates. After a brief discussion of the nature and significance of syndemic theory and its applications, we trace the history and development of the syndemic framework within anthropology and the contributions of …
Syndemics and Human Health
Use of the syndemics concept has diffused from medical anthropology to an array of health-related disciplines. This development reflects a growing awareness that diseases and disease sufferers do not exist in a vacuum and that many of the most damaging human epidemics are the possible or probable consequence, not of a single disease acting alone but of several diseases acting in tandem. Syndemics offer a useful conceptual framework for the study …
Did Policy Change Work? Oregon Women Continue to Encounter Delays in Medicaid Coverage for Abortion
Women in poverty experience greater delays in the process of seeking abortion. Timely access to both safe abortion care and early prenatal care reduces morbidity and mortality among pregnant women. This article examines the impacts of a policy change intended to facilitate poor women's applications for pregnancy-related Medicaid (a federally funded, state-administered health coverage programme for the poorest Americans), in Oregon (Western U.S.).…
A Culture of Future Planning
In this study we examined how social processes, specifically the acquisition of postsecondary education and capital, shaped perceptions of sexual risk and impacted sexual practices and sexual health among young adults. Using qualitative research methods we collected and analyzed data among students attending a 4-year university in the northeastern region of the United States over a 1-year period. By analyzing participants' narratives, we found th…
Syndemics of War
Syndemics play a substantial role in shaping the disease burdens of populations, especially in times of war. It is estimated that in the 20th century, sixty-two million civilians suffered war-related deaths, in addition to forty-five million combatant deaths. Many of these casualties were due to disease rather than battlefield injuries. Through a review and analysis of interdisciplinary literature on war and health, and using case studies of seve…
From Medical Anthropology at a Medical School to Careers in Community-Based Applied Anthropology
This article discusses the origins and development of the MS Program in Medical Anthropology in the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences at Boston University School of Medicine. We review how our faculty identified the need for the program as well as how we developed its design and negotiated the degree curriculum and requirements. We trace the evolution of our Service-Learning Internship Program (SLIP) and its establishment at various facilitie…
At special risk
Women are at special risk for HIV/AIDS infection and disease progression due to an inter-related set of biopolitical factors. Biological factors that contribute to women’s special vulnerability include hormonal, developmental, and immunological characteristics. Social and political factors such as poverty, gendered power relationships, and violence interact with biological factors to create an HIV risk profile among women. The approach of this pa…
At Special Risk
Women are at special risk for HIV/AIDS infection and disease progression due to an inter-related set of biopolitical factors. Biological factors that contribute to women’s special vulnerability include hormonal, developmental, and immunological characteristics. Social and political factors such as poverty, gendered power relationships, and violence interact with biological factors to create an HIV risk profile among women. The approach of this pa…
Syndemics of War
Syndemics play a substantial role in shaping the disease burdens of populations, especially in times of war. It is estimated that in the 20th century, sixty-two million civilians suffered war-related deaths, in addition to forty-five million combatant deaths. Many of these casualties were due to disease rather than battlefield injuries. Through a review and analysis of interdisciplinary literature on war and health, and using case studies of seve…
Syndemics and Human Health
Use of the syndemics concept has diffused from medical anthropology to an array of health-related disciplines. This development reflects a growing awareness that diseases and disease sufferers do not exist in a vacuum and that many of the most damaging human epidemics are the possible or probable consequence, not of a single disease acting alone but of several diseases acting in tandem. Syndemics offer a useful conceptual framework for the study …
Navigating Social and Institutional Obstacles
Nearly half of all women in the United States will have at least one abortion during their lifetime, and many will encounter economic, logistical, and/or social obstacles while attempting to undergo the procedure. The purpose of this project was to examine the abortion-seeking experiences of a volunteer sample of Oregon women, to identify key barriers and the strategies women employed to overcome them. Using a mixed-methods approach combining sur…
Did Policy Change Work? Oregon Women Continue to Encounter Delays in Medicaid Coverage for Abortion
Women in poverty experience greater delays in the process of seeking abortion. Timely access to both safe abortion care and early prenatal care reduces morbidity and mortality among pregnant women. This article examines the impacts of a policy change intended to facilitate poor women's applications for pregnancy-related Medicaid (a federally funded, state-administered health coverage programme for the poorest Americans), in Oregon (Western U.S.).…
A Culture of Future Planning
In this study we examined how social processes, specifically the acquisition of postsecondary education and capital, shaped perceptions of sexual risk and impacted sexual practices and sexual health among young adults. Using qualitative research methods we collected and analyzed data among students attending a 4-year university in the northeastern region of the United States over a 1-year period. By analyzing participants' narratives, we found th…
From Research to Policy Change
Women seeking abortion frequently encounter barriers that may be socioeconomic, logistical, or social. Of particular concern for policy development, women of lower socioeconomic status are more affected by these barriers (Jones and Weitz 2009). The focus of this article is to describe the process by which applied medical anthropology research was transformed into a joint medical anthropology/public health effort to reduce these barriers. The desi…
Syndemics and the biosocial conception of health
A colonial legacy of HIV/Aids, NTD, and STI super-syndemics
Syndemics theory has been applied to the structurally shaped, biologically facilitated co-occurrence of HIV/AIDS with Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and with sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The biological and social pathways of interaction between all three ailments have not yet been analysed together. The effects of these diseases are often exacerbated by structural factors including access to care and socioeconomic status. We explor…
Publicly Funded Abortion and Marginalised People’s Experiences in Catalunya
Abortion law reforms enacted in Spain in 2010 and extended to Catalunya expanded access to abortion. Simultaneously, the autonomous region was affected by economic crisis and austerity, affecting access to care for migrant and marginalised populations. Mixed-method ethnographic data were collected in relation to low-income and immigrant women seeking abortion in two phases: (1) 2012–2013 and (2) early 2016. Data sources included surveys, intervie…
Applied Training in a Medical Anthropology Master's Program
Learning practical skills is key to becoming an applied anthropologist. For my MS degree, I chose a program at Boston University School of Medicine that incorporates skills development into the curriculum through its Service-Learning Internship Program (SLIP). The SLIP facilitates students' familiarity with their field site throughout the first year, before they start summer fieldwork. My SLIP and thesis fieldwork took place in a VA hospital's pa…
From Medical Anthropology at a Medical School to Careers in Community-Based Applied Anthropology
This article discusses the origins and development of the MS Program in Medical Anthropology in the Division of Graduate Medical Sciences at Boston University School of Medicine. We review how our faculty identified the need for the program as well as how we developed its design and negotiated the degree curriculum and requirements. We trace the evolution of our Service-Learning Internship Program (SLIP) and its establishment at various facilitie…
Exploration of the STOP Act and Opioid Deaths in North Carolina, 2010–2018
Objectives. To examine the impact of North Carolina’s 2017 Strengthening Opioid Misuse Prevention (STOP) Act on opioid overdose deaths. Methods. We used quarterly data from the North Carolina Opioid Dashboard to conduct an interrupted time series analysis ranging from 2010 to 2018. Results were stratified by heroin–fentanyl deaths and other opioid deaths. Results. After the STOP Act, there was an initial rate increase of 0.60 opioid deaths per 10…
There Are No “Addicted” Babies in Appalachia
Substance use and the contexts that surround it have caused real harm in Appalachia. Part of this pain may be attributed to substance use itself, but much is also due to our collective reaction to substance use and people who use drugs. The confluence of stigmas against Appalachians, people who are poor, and people who use drugs, as well as the intense surveillance of caregivers, have produced interpersonal violence within medical, social service…
From the Front Lines of the Appalachian Addiction Crisis
An examination of telehealth policy impacts on initial rural opioid use disorder treatment patterns during the Covid‐19 pandemic
PURPOSE: Tracking changes in care utilization of medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD) services before, during, and after COVID-19-associated changes in policy and service delivery in a mixed rural and micropolitan setting. METHODS: Using a retrospective, open-cohort design, we examined visit data of MOUD patients at a family medicine clinic across three identified periods: pre-COVID, COVID transition, and COVID. Outcome measures include the …
Covid‐19 and Rural Harm Reduction Challenges in the US Southern Mountains
Overdose deaths and some other consequences of substance use and its criminalization are greater in rural areas, particularly Appalachia1, 2 and other parts of the Mountain South. With health care shortages and underfunding of social services in rural areas3 and in the South predating COVID-19-related disruptions, rural Harm Reduction4 i programs are more likely to lack sufficient resources.5 A recent study6 focused on mostly urban sites in north…
The harms of punishing substance use during pregnancy
Drug induced homicide laws may worsen opioid related harms
Syndemics
In this review, we trace the origins and dissemination of syndemics, a concept developed within critical medical anthropology that rapidly diffused to other fields. The goal is to provide a review of the literature, with a focus on key debates. After a brief discussion of the nature and significance of syndemic theory and its applications, we trace the history and development of the syndemic framework within anthropology and the contributions of …
Syndemics and intersectionality
Factors associated with perceived ease of access to syringes in Appalachian North Carolina
PURPOSE: To examine associations between perceived ease of syringe access, syringe sources, injection behaviors, and law enforcement (LE) interactions among people who inject drugs (PWID) in rural Appalachian North Carolina (NC). METHODS: Using respondent-driven sampling, a diverse sample of 309 self-reported PWID were recruited from rural Appalachian NC. Data were collected via audio computer-assisted self-interview technology from February 2019…
Marginalised People's Access to Publicly Funded Abortion in Catalunya
Abortion has been legal in Catalunya for any reason in the first trimester and under a set of qualifying circumstances in the second since 2010 and integrated in the health system. Earlier studies identified disparities in access. Through rapid ethnographic assessment (REA) at a Barcelona clinic, this study sought to compare the findings of an earlier phase of REA previously published in this journal with subsequent data collection to determine c…
“When people who use drugs can’t differentiate between medical care and cops, it’s a problem.” Compounding risks of law Enforcement Harassment & Punitive Healthcare Policies
Medicine (22 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Environmental health (13 works) · Political science (13 works) · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk (10 works) · Opioid Use Disorder Treatment (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Psychology (8 works) · Public health (8 works) · Criminology (6 works)