ANNOUNCEMENT: The Recovery Capital Index is being used to understand the effects of COVID-19 on treatment disparities and access to care

WASHINGTON D.C. — A prospective study using the Recovery Capital Index® (RCI) is underway in Washington D.C.

Bibhas Amatya and Omar Saadi, students from George Washington University, are conducting a study in affiliation with opioid treatment clinics throughout various wards in Washington D.C. The team seeks to understand the discrepancies in opioid treatment programs and the disparities in patient’s access to care.

The study aims to build trends in data among evidence-based treatment models in establishing identifiable relationships in mental health and addiction recovery to prevent relapse rates that may have been influenced by the public health crisis.

“The primary purpose of the study is to address how recovery capital may affect the patient’s ability to exhibit normalcy in the psychiatric evaluation,” says Amatya.

“We have specifically designed our methodology to produce data that can lead to promising results that may be used for attaining personalized treatment options on the community level,” indicated Amatya, a recent graduate from George Washington University.

Working alongside Amatya, Omar Saadi is focused on the quantitative analysis of dozens of demographic variables from patients who have been part of the various D.C. opioid treatment programs. Saadi will inspect whether the data can identify how opioid treatment care patients may fare in the context of COVID.

“We believe that by assessing patients through mental health screening and influencing individualized care through recovery capital measurements, patient’s risk for relapse in opioid treatment programs can be reduced despite COVID-19, says Saadi.

Saadi continued, “We plan to use data science to better understand the cause and effects associated with addiction.”

The Recovery Capital Index, or RCI, was developed to provide a multidimensional measurement of addiction wellness. The RCI’s goal is to move outcomes measurement away from sobriety. This study will take the RCI a step further and into the public health realm.

“We’re very interested in this use of the RCI with other measures of recovery capital, social determinants, and psychiatric assessments. COVID has put a spotlight on the complex web of variables that influence recovery from addiction,” says RCI architect and CEO of Commonly Well, David Whitesock.

“Using the RCI and other measures will give us a truly comprehensive look at the underlying effects of COVID.”

The RCI was developed in 2013. It was used and further developed by Face It TOGETHER, a peer coaching organization where Whitesock served as Chief Innovation Officer from 2012 to 2020. The Recovery Capital Index was statistically validated in 2017, with findings peer-reviewed and published in South Dakota Medicine in May 2018.

Commonly Well’s goal is to elevate the RCI as a standard measure of addiction wellness. This goal will be achieved through studies like Amatya and Saadi’s, other research with academics, communities, and providers.

About Commonly Well:

Commonly Well is a technology and behavioral design company. The Recovery Capital Index® is Commonly Well’s first tool developed to harness the power of individual social, environmental, and behavioral information to help people design better lives. Collectively, Commonly Well believes that wellbeing should not be reserved for the few but common for all. By partnering with communities, employers, providers, and others we can build better environments and systems without the inequities that foster disparity and generational trauma. Commonly Well is a public benefit company based in the beautiful Adirondacks of northern New York.

For academic and other licensing interest, please see our website: www.recoverycapital.io/licensing