“You Have to Consider Gender.” Accounts of Professionals on the Barriers to Women's Treatment for Drug Problems

Abstract

Women face barriers to accessing treatment services for drug problems, without fully benefiting from existing programs and resources. We have carried out a qualitative investigation through focus groups with professionals from different disciplines of the Public Network for Drug-Dependence Care of Andalusia. The barriers we have highlighted show the loneliness of women who have problems with drugs use. Our results show that professionals perceived a series of personal, family, institutional, and gender barriers that can prevent women from accessing treatment services. In addition, gender-based violence is a fundamental human-rights problem, and this is also the case for women who use drugs, constituting a barrier to their access to treatment. The narratives of these professionals show through proposals that we need to “consider gender,” and make visible how the context of social inequality continues to affect women who have a drug-use problem in order to break down barriers and empower them.