Ellen Benoit
Biographic Data
| ID | 240689 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Ellen Benoit |
| GIVEN NAMES | Ellen |
| FAMILY NAME | Benoit |
| SIGNATURE | BENOIT E |
| AFFILIATIONS | National Development and Research Institutes |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-4439-4473 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 5 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 32 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Health equity and medical mistrust: A mixed-methods analysis of medical and social determinants among transgender women of colour in the TURNNT cohort study
Medical mistrust as a construct often places the onus of blame for adverse health outcomes on individuals rather than on social structures. In this study, we aimed to determine if medical mistreatment and access to transgender care were potential determinants of medical mistrust. We used longitudinal survey data from 193 transgender women of colour living in New York City. We measured medical mistrust using the Group-Based Medical Mistrust (GBMM)…
Medical Trustworthiness and Covid-19: Examining Health Beliefs and Vaccine Uptake in Disinvested Black Communities
Disinvested Black communities in the US exhibit the highest levels of skepticism about the trustworthiness of medical institutions due to historical and ongoing structural racism, which the COVID-19 pandemic further exposed. Black individuals experienced a COVID-19 mortality rate 3.60 times higher than their white counterparts. This study investigates the mediating role of medical distrust between health beliefs and vaccine uptake among residents…
Without Critical Consciousness, How Could you Move on?” Qualitative Assessments of an Intervention to Reduce Substance Use Among Formerly Incarcerated Men
Background People with a history of substance use disorder who live in marginalized communities (e.g., large minoritized populations, low income, high crime rates) endure disproportionately high incarceration rates, premature death, and infectious disease incidence. Individuals released from incarceration often return to marginalized communities burdened by socially and structurally determined health inequities. Interventions grounded in critical…
Promoting radical healing to facilitate community capacity building among formerly incarcerated Black and Latino men with substance use disorders
This study reports on a qualitative thematic analysis of secondary data from group session recordings collected as part of the Community Wise Optimization Trial. Community Wise is a multilevel behavioral intervention designed to increase critical consciousness and reduce substance use among formerly incarcerated men living in predominantly Black and historically disinvested communities (BHDC). Radical healing is a process of recovering from the t…
Critical Dialogue and Capacity-Building Projects Reduced Alcohol and Substance Use in a Randomized Clinical Trial Among Formerly Incarcerated Men
Background: Rates of alcohol and/or substance use (ASU) among residents of predominantly Black and marginalized communities are similar to ASU rates in White communities. Yet ASU has worse consequences in predominantly Black and marginalized communities (e.g., higher incarceration). Objective: We randomized participants to one of 16 intervention conditions using a 24 full factorial design to optimize a multilevel intervention reducing ASU among 6…
Understanding Black and Latino sexual minority men’s perspectives on assessment of sexual history in diverse health care settings
Findings suggest that a trauma-informed approach to the assessment of sexual histories should consider that patients' current physical and mental states may be (in)directly linked to earlier, traumatic events and that intersecting identities (e.g., gender and race) could influence men's willingness to share their histories. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved)
Protection of Participants in Community-Engaged Research by Institutional Review Boards: A Call for Action
Participation in Critical Dialogues With Illustrative Images Increases Knowledge About Covid-19 Prevention: A Mixed Methods Longitudinal Approach
This intervention study uses community-based participatory research (CBPR) and longitudinal design to examine changes in COVID-19 prevention knowledge over time (3 time points) among racially minoritized participants ( n = 38). The intervention comprised critical dialogues alongside an illustration used to engage participants in conversations about socioeconomic conditions affecting acquisition of COVID-19 knowledge. Quantitative data showed that…
Examining Cultural Competency and Sexual Abuse Training Needs among Service Providers Working with Black and Latino Sexual Minority Men
Black and Latino sexual minority men (SMM) with a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) may be reluctant to disclose such experiences or may appraise them as consensual because of cultural norms. Anticipated stigma, medical mistrust, and concerns that providers lack training in sexuality may complicate their efforts to obtain treatment for long-term health consequences of CSA. It is important to examine the training needs of service providers w…
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare Vol. 48, No. 3
The COVID-19 pandemic has sped up the pace of the digital transition process in which we have been immersed.In a context of generalized lockdown, our organizations have been forced to go digital and many of the activities social workers perform must now be done remotely.As a result, e-social work, or digital social work, has gone from being an emerging specialization to a critical specialty across organizations and activities.In this article, we …
Toward Community Empowerment: The Puerto Rican Ganchero
People who inject drugs (PWID) who migrate from Puerto Rico (PR) to New York City (NYC) are at elevated risk for hepatitis C (HCV), HIV and drug overdose. There is an urgent need to identify a sustainable path toward improving the health outcomes of this population. Peer-driven HIV/HCV prevention interventions for PWID are effective in reducing risk behaviors. Additionally, the concept of intravention—naturally occurring disease prevention activi…
Like a ticking time bomb”: The persistence of trauma in the HIV diagnosis experience among black men who have sex with men in New York City
This small pilot study signals that an HIV diagnosis experience possibly remains traumatic for black MSM even in the era of highly effective ART, and they often perceive a lack of patient-centeredness in the delivery of a new diagnosis. This has persisted over time. In most cases, black MSM in our sample overcame this trauma due to self-motivation, social support and seeking out and fostering trusting relationships with their HIV provider and the…
Injection risk norms and practices among migrant Puerto Rican people who inject drugs in New York City: The limits of acculturation theory
The long tail of a demon drug: The ‘bath salts’ risk environment
Exploring Service Provider Perceptions of Treatment Barriers Facing Black, Non-Gay-Identified MSMW
Non-gay-identified men who have sex with men and women and who use alcohol and other drugs are a vulnerable population. Little is known about health and medical service provider interaction with these underserved clients. This article presents a thematic analysis of two focus groups undertaken with social and medical service providers regarding the needs of non-gay-identified men who have sex with men and women. Four emergent themes (labeling, co…
Community Wise: The Development of an Anti-Oppression Model to Promote Individual and Community Health
Communities with histories of oppression have shown great resilience. Yet few health interventions focus on structural oppression as a contributor to health problems in these communities. This paper describes the development and active ingredients of Community Wise, a unique behavioral-health intervention designed to reduce substance use frequency, related health risk behaviors, and recidivism among individuals with a history of incarceration and…
Recollections of sexual socialisation among marginalised heterosexual black men
This paper describes the sexual socialisation process of marginalised, drug-using heterosexual black men, focusing primarily on the sources and content of sexual information. Analysing qualitative interview data, we discovered that the men in our sample both learn about sex and become sexually active at an early age. They most often learn about sex from the media and least often learn about sex from family members. The content of sexual informati…
Developing PeerLink to engage out-of-care HIV+ substance users: Training peers to deliver a peer-led motivational intervention with fidelity
Substance use among HIV+ individuals can be a barrier to HIV care, resulting in poor health outcomes. Motivational interviewing (MI) is an effective intervention to reduce substance abuse and increase HIV-related health. Healthcare workers from various backgrounds can be effectively trained in delivering MI interventions; however, there has been limited evidence that peers can effectively deliver MI interventions with fidelity. Peers have traditi…
The provider perception inventory: Psychometrics of a scale designed to measure provider stigma about HIV, substance abuse, and MSM behavior
Nongay identified men who have sex with men and women (NGI MSMW) and who use alcohol and other drugs are a vulnerable, understudied, and undertreated population. Little is known about the stigma faced by this population or about the way that health service providers view and serve these stigmatized clients. The provider perception inventory (PPI) is a 39-item scale that measures health services providers' stigma about HIV/AIDS, substance use, and…
Perspectives on Substance Use and Disclosure Among Behaviorally Bisexual Black Men With Female Primary Partners
Black men who have sex with men and women (MSMW) are believed to be a bridge to HIV infection among heterosexual Black women, and substance use can increase the risk of infection among men. However, empirical evidence on the social context of MSMW's sexual behavior and substance use is needed. This study examines the perspectives of Black MSMW with female primary partners on the role of substance use in their sexual encounters with men and their …
Reaching and engaging non-gay identified, non-disclosing Black men who have sex with both men and women
Non-gay identified (NGI) Black men who have sex with both men and women (MSMW) and who use substances are at risk of acquiring and transmitting HIV to their partners. Homophobic community norms can discourage such men from disclosing their risk behaviour to female partners and others, including service providers. It is important to understand the dynamics of risk in this vulnerable population, but research is challenged by the men's need for secr…
Stages of drug market change during disaster: Hurricane Katrina and reformulation of the New Orleans drug market
Dimensions of Oppression in the Lives of Impoverished Black Women Who Use Drugs
Oppression against Black women continues to be a significant problem in the United States. The purpose of this study is to use grounded theory to identify multiple dimensions of oppression experienced by impoverished Black women who use drugs by examining several settings in which participants experience oppression. Three case studies of drug using, impoverished Black women were randomly selected from two large scale consecutive ethnographic stud…
Drug Use and Conflict in Inner-City African-Anterican Relationships in the 2000s
Inner-city relationships face numerous challenges including illegal drug use and its consequences. The nature of this challenge, however, has changed dramatically with a shift from the crack subculture of the 1980s and early 1990s to the subsequent marijuana/blunts subculture. This study presents data concerning 95 inner-city relationships where illegal drug use was present from people who were interviewed in 2004-2006 and reinterviewed in 2008. …
Normalization of Violence: Experiences of Childhood Abuse by Inner-City Crack Users
An increasing literature mostly based on retrospective surveys has been consistently documenting a correlation between physical abuse in childhood (CPA) and substance abuse in adulthood (ASA). This article uses ethnographic data to reveal the processes behind and context of this linkage for one population-poor, inner-city New York residents who became crack users. Life in the inner city is qualitatively different than in more fortunate circumstan…
Bring Back the WPA: Work, Relief, and the Origins of American Social Policy in Welfare Reform
When people think of the origins of American social policy, they usually think of the 1935 Social Security Act, part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's second New Deal. That legislation created both old-age insurance, now commonly known as social security, and Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), recently known as welfare. Though central to today's social policy, these programs were somewhat marginal to New Deal social policy because they dealt with special …
Participation in Critical Dialogues With Illustrative Images Increases Knowledge About Covid-19 Prevention: A Mixed Methods Longitudinal Approach
This intervention study uses community-based participatory research (CBPR) and longitudinal design to examine changes in COVID-19 prevention knowledge over time (3 time points) among racially minoritized participants ( n = 38). The intervention comprised critical dialogues alongside an illustration used to engage participants in conversations about socioeconomic conditions affecting acquisition of COVID-19 knowledge. Quantitative data showed that…
Bring Back the WPA: Work, Relief, and the Origins of American Social Policy in Welfare Reform
When people think of the origins of American social policy, they usually think of the 1935 Social Security Act, part of Franklin D. Roosevelt's second New Deal. That legislation created both old-age insurance, now commonly known as social security, and Aid to Dependent Children (ADC), recently known as welfare. Though central to today's social policy, these programs were somewhat marginal to New Deal social policy because they dealt with special …
Code Switching and Inverse Imitation among Marijuana-using Crack Sellers
Journal Article Code Switching and Inverse Imitation among Marijuana‐using Crack Sellers Get access Ellen Benoit, Ellen Benoit Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Doris Randolph, Doris Randolph Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Eloise Dunlap, Eloise Dunlap Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Bruce Johnson Bruce Johnson Search for other…
National Health Insurance and Health-Based Drug Policy: An Examination of Policy Linkages in the USA and Canada
For more than 50 years the United States and Canada maintained illegal-drug policies that followed the same course: a long period of punitive prohibition followed by moderation and an emphasis on drug abuse as a public health problem. Then in the 1980s, the USA reverted to a punitive model while Canada increased its commitment to a health-based approach. Why this divergence after following the same path for so long? In this paper I argue that one…
Substance Use and Abuse: Sociological Perspectives
Sessions, Cyphers, and Parties: Settings for Informal Social Controls of Blunt Smoking
The importance of settings for marijuana use has been widely noted, but the way that informal social controls are organized to moderate the amounts consumed have not been well documented. A major ethnographic study of blunts/marijuana use in New York City observed several hundred marijuana users in group locations and conducted intensive interviews with 92 focal subjects. The vast majority of blunt smokers preferred to consume in a group setting.…
Social constructions of dependency by blunts smokers: Qualitative reports
B.K.’s Story: His Path to Becoming an Inner-City Custodial Father
Normalization of Violence: Experiences of Childhood Abuse by Inner-City Crack Users
An increasing literature mostly based on retrospective surveys has been consistently documenting a correlation between physical abuse in childhood (CPA) and substance abuse in adulthood (ASA). This article uses ethnographic data to reveal the processes behind and context of this linkage for one population-poor, inner-city New York residents who became crack users. Life in the inner city is qualitatively different than in more fortunate circumstan…
Dimensions of Oppression in the Lives of Impoverished Black Women Who Use Drugs
Oppression against Black women continues to be a significant problem in the United States. The purpose of this study is to use grounded theory to identify multiple dimensions of oppression experienced by impoverished Black women who use drugs by examining several settings in which participants experience oppression. Three case studies of drug using, impoverished Black women were randomly selected from two large scale consecutive ethnographic stud…
Drug Use and Conflict in Inner-City African-Anterican Relationships in the 2000s
Inner-city relationships face numerous challenges including illegal drug use and its consequences. The nature of this challenge, however, has changed dramatically with a shift from the crack subculture of the 1980s and early 1990s to the subsequent marijuana/blunts subculture. This study presents data concerning 95 inner-city relationships where illegal drug use was present from people who were interviewed in 2004-2006 and reinterviewed in 2008. …
Perspectives on Substance Use and Disclosure Among Behaviorally Bisexual Black Men With Female Primary Partners
Black men who have sex with men and women (MSMW) are believed to be a bridge to HIV infection among heterosexual Black women, and substance use can increase the risk of infection among men. However, empirical evidence on the social context of MSMW's sexual behavior and substance use is needed. This study examines the perspectives of Black MSMW with female primary partners on the role of substance use in their sexual encounters with men and their …
Reaching and engaging non-gay identified, non-disclosing Black men who have sex with both men and women
Non-gay identified (NGI) Black men who have sex with both men and women (MSMW) and who use substances are at risk of acquiring and transmitting HIV to their partners. Homophobic community norms can discourage such men from disclosing their risk behaviour to female partners and others, including service providers. It is important to understand the dynamics of risk in this vulnerable population, but research is challenged by the men's need for secr…
Stages of drug market change during disaster: Hurricane Katrina and reformulation of the New Orleans drug market
Recollections of sexual socialisation among marginalised heterosexual black men
This paper describes the sexual socialisation process of marginalised, drug-using heterosexual black men, focusing primarily on the sources and content of sexual information. Analysing qualitative interview data, we discovered that the men in our sample both learn about sex and become sexually active at an early age. They most often learn about sex from the media and least often learn about sex from family members. The content of sexual informati…
Developing PeerLink to engage out-of-care HIV+ substance users: Training peers to deliver a peer-led motivational intervention with fidelity
Substance use among HIV+ individuals can be a barrier to HIV care, resulting in poor health outcomes. Motivational interviewing (MI) is an effective intervention to reduce substance abuse and increase HIV-related health. Healthcare workers from various backgrounds can be effectively trained in delivering MI interventions; however, there has been limited evidence that peers can effectively deliver MI interventions with fidelity. Peers have traditi…
The provider perception inventory: Psychometrics of a scale designed to measure provider stigma about HIV, substance abuse, and MSM behavior
Nongay identified men who have sex with men and women (NGI MSMW) and who use alcohol and other drugs are a vulnerable, understudied, and undertreated population. Little is known about the stigma faced by this population or about the way that health service providers view and serve these stigmatized clients. The provider perception inventory (PPI) is a 39-item scale that measures health services providers' stigma about HIV/AIDS, substance use, and…
Community Wise: The Development of an Anti-Oppression Model to Promote Individual and Community Health
Communities with histories of oppression have shown great resilience. Yet few health interventions focus on structural oppression as a contributor to health problems in these communities. This paper describes the development and active ingredients of Community Wise, a unique behavioral-health intervention designed to reduce substance use frequency, related health risk behaviors, and recidivism among individuals with a history of incarceration and…
Exploring Service Provider Perceptions of Treatment Barriers Facing Black, Non-Gay-Identified MSMW
Non-gay-identified men who have sex with men and women and who use alcohol and other drugs are a vulnerable population. Little is known about health and medical service provider interaction with these underserved clients. This article presents a thematic analysis of two focus groups undertaken with social and medical service providers regarding the needs of non-gay-identified men who have sex with men and women. Four emergent themes (labeling, co…
The long tail of a demon drug: The ‘bath salts’ risk environment
Injection risk norms and practices among migrant Puerto Rican people who inject drugs in New York City: The limits of acculturation theory
Like a ticking time bomb”: The persistence of trauma in the HIV diagnosis experience among black men who have sex with men in New York City
This small pilot study signals that an HIV diagnosis experience possibly remains traumatic for black MSM even in the era of highly effective ART, and they often perceive a lack of patient-centeredness in the delivery of a new diagnosis. This has persisted over time. In most cases, black MSM in our sample overcame this trauma due to self-motivation, social support and seeking out and fostering trusting relationships with their HIV provider and the…
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare Vol. 48, No. 3
The COVID-19 pandemic has sped up the pace of the digital transition process in which we have been immersed.In a context of generalized lockdown, our organizations have been forced to go digital and many of the activities social workers perform must now be done remotely.As a result, e-social work, or digital social work, has gone from being an emerging specialization to a critical specialty across organizations and activities.In this article, we …
Toward Community Empowerment: The Puerto Rican Ganchero
People who inject drugs (PWID) who migrate from Puerto Rico (PR) to New York City (NYC) are at elevated risk for hepatitis C (HCV), HIV and drug overdose. There is an urgent need to identify a sustainable path toward improving the health outcomes of this population. Peer-driven HIV/HCV prevention interventions for PWID are effective in reducing risk behaviors. Additionally, the concept of intravention—naturally occurring disease prevention activi…
Examining Cultural Competency and Sexual Abuse Training Needs among Service Providers Working with Black and Latino Sexual Minority Men
Black and Latino sexual minority men (SMM) with a history of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) may be reluctant to disclose such experiences or may appraise them as consensual because of cultural norms. Anticipated stigma, medical mistrust, and concerns that providers lack training in sexuality may complicate their efforts to obtain treatment for long-term health consequences of CSA. It is important to examine the training needs of service providers w…
Critical Dialogue and Capacity-Building Projects Reduced Alcohol and Substance Use in a Randomized Clinical Trial Among Formerly Incarcerated Men
Background: Rates of alcohol and/or substance use (ASU) among residents of predominantly Black and marginalized communities are similar to ASU rates in White communities. Yet ASU has worse consequences in predominantly Black and marginalized communities (e.g., higher incarceration). Objective: We randomized participants to one of 16 intervention conditions using a 24 full factorial design to optimize a multilevel intervention reducing ASU among 6…
Psychology (20 works) · Sociology (20 works) · Medicine (18 works) · Political science (14 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Psychiatry (11 works) · Criminology (10 works) · Population (8 works) · Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes (8 works) · HIV, Drug Use, Sexual Risk (7 works)