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A comparison of women seeking drug and alcohol treatment in a specialist women's and two traditional mixed‐sex treatment services
Author(s) -
COPELAND JAN,
HALL WAYNE
Publication year - 1992
Publication title -
british journal of addiction
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.424
H-Index - 193
eISSN - 1360-0443
pISSN - 0952-0481
DOI - 10.1111/j.1360-0443.1992.tb02738.x
Subject(s) - lesbian , substance abuse treatment , drug treatment , psychiatry , substance abuse , medicine , service (business) , sexual abuse , substance use , clinical psychology , psychology , family medicine , suicide prevention , poison control , environmental health , economy , economics , psychoanalysis
The paucity of research on the treatment needs of women with substance abuse problems has been a serious impediment to the development of empirically validated treatment programmes. Women continue to be seriously under‐represented as research subjects and clients of treatment services. This study compares the characteristics of 80 women attending a specialist women's treatment service with those of eighty women attending two traditional mixed‐sex treatment agencies. Women attending a gender‐sensitive service were significantly more likely to have dependent children, to be lesbian, to have a maternal history for drug or alcohol problems and to have suffered sexual abuse in childhood. These results suggest that gender‐sensitive treatment services may be recruiting women who might not otherwise have sought treatment for their substance dependence problems.