Services and policy makers need to do more to engage and support women affected by drug use
Women are underrepresented in drug support services and often experience significant barriers to accessing support. That’s why we’re researching what can be done to change this.
If you were to walk into a drug treatment service and eight people are sitting in the waiting area, the statistical likelihood is that six will be men.
According to the latest Public Health England statistics, men make up nearly three quarters of the treatment population. This fact was raised in the recent Dame Carol Black review into drugs and drug treatment, with Black concluding that much of service capacity is taken up by mostly male long-term opiate users, meaning “the capacity to develop expertise and services to meet the needs of other cohorts is limited.”
While men are more likely to use drugs than women, women are still severely under-represented when it comes to accessing support. At the same time, female drug related deaths are rising at a faster rate than male deaths, with the number of women dying per million increasing for ten successive years.
While trauma is a big factor in both male and female drug use, research has shown that relationships with a partner play a much larger role in women’s drug use. While no one woman’s experience is the same, in general women are more likely to be introduced to drugs by a partner, while men are more likely to be introduced by a friend. Women’s drug use often begins out of necessity, as a coping mechanism, whereas men are more likely to first use drugs recreationally. Women also progress from first use to problematic use more quickly, a process known as ‘telescoping’. Research by Agenda, the alliance for women and girls at risk, found that women who have experienced domestic abuse are eight times more likely to develop an issue with drugs than those who haven’t.
People working in treatment services also regularly see how women face additional barriers to accessing support. For someone who has experienced domestic abuse, male dominated services can be daunting, while women with children in their care often fear losing custody if they are open about their drug use. 44% of women in treatment in England for opiates are mothers who are not living with their children. And, through talking to women who have used our services, there often seems to be an increased stigma attached to female drug use. As one woman said “we’re made out to be goddesses and we aren’t allowed to be down.”
We believe that both services and policy makers need to do more to better engage and support women affected by drugs. That’s why we are researching the issue, with the aim of understanding what interventions and models of support are most effective in engaging and maintaining women who use drugs within treatment. We are speaking to women with lived experience and a range of services that provide support in this area to develop this picture, with the findings moulding a series of recommendations in our final report which we hope will influence government policy as well as being shared with the wider sector.
If you are an organisation/person who specialises in working with women affected by drug use, we would love to hear from you. Please fill out our online survey. It shouldn’t take longer than ten minutes and will provide valuable insight to help shape our findings. Additionally, if you are interested in being more involved with the project please don’t hesitate to get in touch by emailing pressoffice@wearewithyou.org.uk.
