Addressing OUD Stigma: Impactful Strategies in Pharmacy Education

The Let's Talk Stigma program underwent a mixed-methods evaluation combining pre–post surveys, attendance logs, and qualitative interviews to assess reach, self-reported attitude change, and operational uptake.

Conducted over a 12-month implementation period, the team recruited participants via community pharmacies and continuing-education enrollment; endpoints included unique participant counts, podcast analytics, survey-reported attitude measures, and documented in‑pharmacy outreach, supporting interpretation as a primary program evaluation rather than a brief report.

Pharmacy-located stigma reduction reframes earlier OUD education by centering attitudes and in‑pharmacy workflows rather than focusing solely on clinical protocols and medication management. This approach emphasizes language, patient-facing interactions, and operational touchpoints. Pharmacists and pharmacy teams are readily accessible, see patients frequently, and serve as critical harm-reduction access points for naloxone distribution and referral—making pharmacy-based interventions timely and directly linked to measurable local engagement.

Implementation used complementary tactics: an anti-stigma podcast with broad reach, targeted continuing education for practicing teams that offered flexible credit-bearing learning, student-pharmacist outreach that distributed stigma-reduction kits and curricular modules, and pharmacy-based activities that prompted point-of-care conversations and linkage to mobile treatment or telehealth partners.

Together, these elements created repeated learning opportunities—audio exposure, accredited training, learner-led outreach, and in‑pharmacy practice prompts—so educational messages and behavior cues occurred across settings and time.

Program data confirm substantial reach and positive engagement: over 12 months, attendance logs recorded more than 5,000 unique local participants and podcast analytics captured approximately 22,000 global listens. These counts derive from enrollment and attendance records, platform analytics, and participant survey responses and document clear uptake of educational content. Participant feedback described increased awareness, reported attitude change, and a stronger sense of professional responsibility to reduce stigma; qualitative themes and attendance metrics together indicate measurable educational penetration and operational impact within pharmacy settings.

Looking ahead, pharmacy leaders can translate these findings into routine training plans and partnership agreements to sustain anti-stigma practice across community sites.

Key Takeaways:

• Pharmacy-based, multi-modal stigma programming demonstrated large local reach and offers a practical toolkit for staff; Who: pharmacy teams and patients; Next: integrate materials into routine staff training and student curricula.
• Continuing education and student outreach created repeatable touchpoints to shift attitudes; Who: frontline pharmacists and students; Next: prioritize CE modules and structured outreach rotations within experiential programs.
• Program evaluation documented measurable engagement and operational uptake that supports scale-up; Who: health systems and community pharmacies; Next: align efforts with harm-reduction partners and mobile/telehealth units.