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Project Overview

About the project

The Uphill Battle is a three-part series looking at addiction recovery in Appalachian Ohio, focusing on those affected by opioid-use disorder. The reporting for the project was done over a period of a month and a half ending in January, 2022. It took another two months to write and package the project. 

During the summer of 2021, I spent months reading past research about the media's coverage of opioid addiction. Several themes emerged throughout my research, including deficient coverage of medically assisted treatments for opioid addiction, disproportionate focus on criminal justice solutions, under-representation of people who are directly affected by the opioid crisis, and over dependence on field experts, such as researchers, professors and officials.

Those findings guided my reporting and finally the stories that I came across. 

Part 1 of the project delves into patients’ overwhelming reliance on insurance and inadequate aftercare services, which often hinders their progress. 

 

Part 2 investigates the reasons behind the different perceptions about medically assisted treatment for opioid-use disorder among healthcare workers, patients and lawmakers. 

 

Part 3 looks at the behavioral healthcare workforce shortage in Ohio, which is burdening remaining workers and making recovery difficult for many.

Process

While working on the series, I interviewed over three dozen people, including those in recovery and with active addiction, counselors, case managers, house managers, doctors specializing in addiction, activists and law enforcement.

Simultaneously, I spent a lot of time finding data to corroborate the information that I was hearing. I collected data through public-records requests from the Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, among others; and I also delved into the Ohio Public Information Warehouse to find mortality reports. 

The data collection in the beginning of the reporting also allowed me to create infographics and other visualizations to help elucidate a complex subject. Throughout the process, I also learned to use online vizualization tools such as Mapbox and SankeyMatic.

The sensitivity of the subject challenged me to be extra careful when taking pictures and videos of the subjects. I gave each source ample time to decide if they wanted themselves captured on camera. The natural hesitance of some sources taught me to experiment with shots that are faceless but meanighful. 

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