THE IDEA
mainstay RI, is a proposal for a soft and slow approach to care for people who have recently overdosed from opioids. It takes the agency of people who use drugs as it’s first priority and attempts to create an environment where care workers and peers can enable people to define and follow their own path to better outcomes.
Care Team
Care Space
Person Using Substances
Treatment
mainstay RI, was conceived by a team of designers, health care professionals, and non-profit workers at the 2019 hackathon run by the Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) on Opioids and Overdose at Rhode Island Hospital (funded by the NIH).
As the winning proposal, the concept continues to be developed by members of the team.
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Watch the team interview on ABC News
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ORIGIN STORY
THE TEAM
Michael
Beauregard
Founder & Managing Principal, Systems Change Strategies
Hannah
Dalglish
Project Manager, Partnership for Health Analytic Research
Leigh Hubbard
Clinical Manager,
Open Door Health
President,
American Nurses Association -
RI chapter
Tim
Maly
Senior Lead,
Center for Complexity
Rhode Island School of Design
Toban
Shadlyn
Strategic Designer & Researcher,
Center for Complexity
Rhode Island School of Design
RESEARCH STUDY
We are a team of designers, health care professionals, and non-profit workers who envision a Rhode Island where people who use drugs are supported in their path to improved health and safety. Our goal is to engage critically with those in the challenge space to create and improve environments of care for people who use opioids that extends beyond what is currently available in RI.
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Scope
The scope of this design and research project will include 10 - 15 interviews with key constituents in the overdose and recovery space. This will include but not be limited to people with lived opioid use experience, physicians, clinicians and nurses, recovery experts, community leaders, and public health experts.
Objective
The objective of this research is to better understand existing care practices (team composition, therapies, and the physical space). It seeks two perspectives: the lived experience of professionals who provide care to people who use opioids; and the lived experience of people who use opioids and receive such care.
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This is an exploratory research effort, intended to form the basis of a more complete design proposal for the design of future care spaces, services & their delivery, and care teams.