Examining access for women in alcohol misuse treatment

Abstract

This article examines how services develop to meet their aims of equality in an increasingly diverse, multicultural UK. It focuses on women and the clinical areas of alcohol misuse. the ratio for women presenting themselves to services has always been outnumbered by males, in the ratio 4:1. There are some anecdotal reasons for this, such as that women might have a fear of social services being involved, or a fear that children will be taken off them (if the woman with alcohol dependency has children). Therefore, females may not present to services to seek help for their dependency, which then has the potential to become ‘hidden’ from substance misuse services. This article looks at how services can be open and accommodate women in substance misuse services and meet their recovery needs. It looks at the clinical field of alcohol and looks at the approach the primary care alcohol service in Islington has used to see how it has adapted its service to accommodate this. It looks to see whether the service can treat women as well as men, and improve on the current ratio in favour of males presenting to services. This article argues that the field of alcohol provision can accommodate and treat women successfully to become alcohol-free.