UK Drug Policy Commission wins grant to examine drug shame

Published: 11 January 2010

This is an article which I wanted to place here as I thought this would be of interest not only to those who work in the addiction field, but also to those who come into contact with people with addiction issues, as this concerns the stigma and prejudice that is directed towards people who are recovering drug users which may be something that you have seen in clinical practice or have been told about by service users.

The issues of stigma and prejudice towards services users is something that should concern us all as this leads not only to feelings of embarassment and disempowerment among service users, but also can lead to them not accessing services to meet their basic care needs due to fear of how they will be treated.

This research is planning to look at the wider impacts of such negativity on the lives of service users and their families from the ways in which negative societal attitudes to treatment services can mean that there is little access to treatment locally. To the prejudice from employers who would not wish to employ an ex-heroin user or ex-crack addict due to their stigmatised perception of the sort of employee this person would make.

Once the evidence of the range of stigma has been collected the commission then plans to look at ways in which it will be possible to empower services and individuals to tackle stigma and prejudice directed at recovering drug users.    

The commission is planning to involve a wide range of contributors to this research which will inlcude service users and their families and also service providers to inform their research. As yet it is not clear how people will be able to contribute to this research, as soon as I hear anything I will put it here so that there will be clear access to becoming involved in this interesting and hopefully inlfuential piece of research.

The full press release can be found on the UK Drug Policy Commission website.