Our Goals
We are a multi-disciplinary team of researches, community organizations, clinicians, service providers, and women's health advocates who are investigating the role of social and policy environments in influencing the health of women who use alcohol, tobacco, and other drugs. Our focus is on understanding how multiple and often over-lapping factors which intersect with substance use- such as housing, poverty, violence, criminalization, the organization of health care delivery, child welfare issues, and co-occuring physical and mental health concerns- mediate health outcomes for substance-using women and their families. Using participatory approaches to research, our aim is to create new knowledge that can contribute to a significant improvement in the lives of women affected by substance use problems.
Why is this a women's health research priority?
Alcohol, tobacco and other substance use has a significant impact on the health of women and their families. The consequences of problematic substance use are often different for women and men. Traditionally, addictions research has been concentrated in the physiological and clinical aspects of substance use, and under-attended to the social, economic, political and legal conditions in which women live (collectively defined as the social determinants of health). These conditions influence health status and contribute to persistent health disparities among marginalized women living with addictions, and affect women's health by shaping individual drug-use as well as the resources available to women to improve their health. By investigating the factors that intersect with and influence health for women who use substance (and their families), we are helping to create an environment which recognizes that response to addiction provides more than an understanding of addiction as a disease: it also promotes health, wellbeing and resilience.
Details
Publications
J Obstet Gynaecol Can. 2010 Sept; 32(9): 866-71, An Evaluation of Rooming-in Among Substance-exposed Newborns in British Columbia; Abrahams RR, MacKay-Dunn MH, Nevmerjitskaia V, MacRae S, Payne SP, Hodgson ZG. Permission to post article has been provided courtesy of the Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada.
