BASH Lab is about health.

According to the World Health Organization, “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity” (WHO, 1948). However, in the context of individuals’ daily decisions related to health, a “healthy choice” is more complex than a categorical definition. Hawk et al. (2017) offer several principles of a harm reductive approach to health behaviors within healthcare settings. One of the central facets of this approach includes the idea of pragmatism, “…the idea that none of us will ever achieve perfect health behaviors and that ‘perfect’ health behaviors are impossible to define. While providers may have wished their patients could make healthy choices every time and in every situation, these providers recognized this was an unrealistic expectation. A pragmatic approach meant that abstinence from harmful health behaviors was neither prioritized nor assumed to be the goal of the patient; rather, a range of supportive approaches were offered.”

BASH Lab adopts this pragmatic and harm reductive approach to health, such that health is a concept relative to each individual and depends on their current behaviors, environment, culture, social network, and social norms. We focus on these variables and their impact on each individual’s health choices.

BASH Lab integrates methods, technologies, and theoretical backgrounds from behavioral psychology, public health, and medicine to understand the variables that cause unhealthy behavior for each person.

BASH Lab utilizes a harm reductive approach based on the individual’s behaviors, their health, and their goals. Harm reduction integrates well into the theoretical and practical framework of behavior analysis, as it can function as an abolishing operation for using substances and reduces the response effort for making less harmful choices related to health and substance use.

BASH Lab uses a translational framework for assessment, prevention, and intervention:

Assessment methods at the individual level include preference assessments, behavioral economic assessments of delay discounting and substance demand, and survey and interview methods. Assessment at the community level includes surveys, interviews, and needs assessments of community and subpopulation needs. Assessment at the population and policy level includes behavioral economic assessments of substance demand based on potential policy changes.

Interventions at the individual level include behavioral methods such as contingency management, behavioral skills training, education, pharmacotherapy, and motivational interviewing. Interventions and prevention at the community and policy levels include reducing barriers to treatment access, increasing social support, reducing stigma, increasing access to harm reduction supplies, increasing housing and food access, improving screening and referral ease, and revising policies related to possession and use of substances.