Alumni Spotlight: Christina Parisi, PhD

Featured Article:

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Dr. Christina Parisis

Our article, “Reasons for not seeking alcohol treatment among a sample of Florida adults with HIV who perceived the need for treatment,” was recently published in Addiction Science and Clinical Practice. This was a mixed-methods study that examined cross-sectional survey data from the Florida Cohort study. Participants were asked, “Was there ever a time when you thought you should seek help for your drinking, but you didn’t go?” and, if they answered yes, “What were the main reasons why you did not seek help?” The most common reasons why people said they did not seek care were for personal or individual-level reasons such as shame, denial, fear, wanting to do it on their own, not feeling ready, and not wanting to seek care. However, a minority of participants also described community-level reasons such as resource access. Given that recognizing a need for help is the first critical step on the road to alcohol use recovery, we hope these results will help providers and researchers create interventions that address these reported barriers and encourage people to seek help. I am very thankful for the incredible writing team who worked for a long time to get this out there. It is open access so everyone can give it a read now!