DOES YOUR
SERVICE RUN SPECIFIC
SUPPORT FOR WOMEN?
Do you have ideas on what
would make a difference?
Please email the editor,
[email protected]
H
aving been in the sector for 20
years, Addaction’s executive
director of external affairs Karen
Tyrell wanted to talk about some
‘long-standing issues’.
‘Drug and alcohol services have
failed to meet the needs of women,’ she said. ‘We
inadvertently create barriers.’ There was a
perception that women didn’t need services as
much as men, but they actually had more complex
needs. ‘They are often deeply concerned about social
services getting involved and taking their children
away,’ she said, and ‘they often don’t have positive
experience of authority figures’.
Women in Addaction’s services had nearly always
experienced some kind of trauma, she explained,
and it wasn’t ‘a simple relationship between
childhood experiences and drug use’. Many had
been abused by a partner.
Services needed to enquire carefully about
individual experiences and look for trauma
symptoms. ‘Our job is about taking a strength and
resilience-based approach – changing it from “what’s
gone wrong?” to “what’s happened to you?”,’ she
said.
First impressions of treatment were important,
and the experience could be negative if the first
person they saw was male. Making progress also
depended on understanding the level of stigma
many had experienced – ‘what kind of a mother are
you?’ – which tended to be very different from the
attitude towards a dad who used drugs and alcohol.
‘The fear of having children taken away can’t be
underestimated,’ she said, and there was much to be
done in becoming trauma and gender aware. Safe
spaces for women were not just ‘nice to have’
services that could be cut first – they were vital and
must be protected.
‘I’m fed up with women’s provision just being
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‘Service
design is one
of the key
pieces from
evidence... so
often policy is
made in silos.’ ‘I’m fed up
with women’s
provision just
being through
the lens of
childbirth
and childcare.’
Jessica Southgate Karen Tyrell
through the lens of childbirth and childcare – we
have got to change,’ said Tyrell. ‘We need to demand
more from each other as treatment providers. There
must be ways we can work together differently.’
K
im Morris, Addaction’s North
Somerset Women’s Group
coordinator felt that women
represented ‘a section of society
that we’re not reaching effectively’.
She recently started a group to let
women explore relationships and improve self-
esteem and self-awareness, looking at trauma
through the context of adverse childhood experiences
(ACE). Substance misuse was ‘the red herring’ – not
the root cause of problems, but an effect.
Providing a safe environment for discussion gave
the opportunity to talk about all kinds of issues that
could be barriers to treatment, such as fear of being
judged, socially ingrained sexism, lack of faith that
life could be different, and being dubious of the
support that services could give them. The idea that
services were ‘the enemy’ could be intensified by
previous experiences with social services, particularly
if children had been taken away from them.
Morris described how the group was helping
women to grow in confidence and develop ‘a greater
sense of honesty and behaviours’. Trainee social
workers were encouraged to sit in on the group and
this further contributed to helping relationships. ‘I
have learned to stop blaming myself and apologising
for everything,’ one group participant had
commented.
There was a lot to do, said Morris – the ‘Orange
Guidelines’ only mentioned women in relation to
pregnancy. But there was a growing interest around
the group, and although it had started small it was
going well and now needed commissioners on board.
‘All services need to commit to being gender
in form ed,’ she stated. ‘We need to ask about barriers
and be open to listening about what would make a
difference.’ DDN
April 2019 | drinkanddrugsnews | 9