Understanding Pain Expression in Wabanaki People during Recovery: Enhancing Wabanaki Research, Data Self-Determination, and Capacity Development

This project aims to empower Wabanaki communities by enhancing their research and data capabilities through the increased capacity of REDCap, a HIPAA compliant, web-based data capture platform inside Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness (WPHW). WPHW staff will become REDCap experts in design and implementation of research projects which will bolster the ability of WPHW to design research projects in collaboration with communities. Additionally, WPHW will develop a research training curriculum for WPHW staff, which will also be adapted for community education to boost research literacy and capacity. This will create the capacity to house a research project design looking into pain expression for Wabanaki people in recovery. Through these efforts, we strive to support the professional development of our staff, enhance community-based research, and contribute to the understanding of how Wabanaki express pain. This study is part of the NIH’s Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) initiative to speed scientific solutions for the overdose epidemic, including opioid and stimulant use disorders, and the crisis of chronic pain. The NIH HEAL Initiative bolsters research across NIH to improve treatment for opioid misuse and addiction and acute and chronic pain.