C18 - Centering Intersectional Voices Within Treatment and Recovery

Providers and health care leaders need to consider how intersectional factors impact treatment and recovery among all people groups, including Black and Latinx individuals. Providing culturally responsive care honors individuals’ strengths and opportunities for growth, values their expertise in their own lived experiences and intersecting identities, seeks to understand their cultural and social contexts, and practices an openness to learning more about what is not yet known by the provider. In this panel discussion, moderator Phil Rutherford, Strategy Lead for Substance Use at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing, will explore various intersections that must be at the forefront for providers offering services to individuals who identify as Black and Latinx. Guest panelists will include participants from the recent national campaign Start with Hope. Speakers will explore their intersectional identities and experiences as it relates to their treatment and recovery journey. This session will both encourage and challenge providers of all backgrounds, in their own understandings of what it means to provide culturally responsive whole-person care.