Women’s perspectives on effective substance use treatment and support

Women who seek support for substance use deserve to receive the kind of support that is appropriate to them. Problems with substance use among women have well-established links to gendered experiences of trauma, abuse and exploitation, and for treatment to be effective, it is important that services are responsive to these experiences and meet women’s needs.

This research, funded by the JABBS Foundation for Women and Girls, explores what a better system of substance use treatment would look like from the perspective of women in treatment. For this report, we worked with treatment provider The Nelson Trust to recruit women with experience of accessing treatment across seven different locations, asking about their experiences of various treatment provision and what they actually wanted from treatment services.

This is the third publication in this programme of research. Last year, we published a guide to commissioning drug and alcohol treatment services for women, also funded by the JABBS Foundation. The guide highlighted practical ways of improving women’s access to, and experience of, gender-responsive treatment services through understanding local need, upskilling workforces, partnership working, and lived experience involvement. This built on prior research by the Centre, funded by the JABBS Foundation and the West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner, which identified that many of the mainstream, mixed-gender treatment services we looked at were not working well for women. It found evidence that women were accessing treatment services in spaces that exposed them to risks of abuse or exploitation, and that did not give them space to explore their gendered experiences or effectively meet their needs if they had experienced trauma.

Join us on the 28th April from 12:30-14:00 for the online launch of this research. The event will include:

• An introduction from Dame Carol Black, author of the Independent Review on Drugs;
• An overview of our main findings with our Senior Researcher, Lydia Clark, and Suraksha Ujjainwal, the Peer Researcher on the project;
• A presentation from Chris Line, the CEO of the Nelson Trust;
• A talk from Emma Plant, Community Engager at Red Rose Recovery.

Following the talks from each speaker, we will host a Q&A sessionwith the panel speakers to discuss the themes raised in the report. We hope to see you there.