Lived experiences of stigma and discrimination among South West Sydney Drug Health service users: A qualitative study – project completed

It is known that stigma is a barrier to healthcare for people with experiences of alcohol and other drug consumption in Australia. Funded by the South Western Sydney Local Health District, this project conducted in-depth interviews with people who have accessed drug health services in the Health District. It analysed how stigma shaped their engagement with healthcare, their alcohol and other drug consumption and how they managed and negotiated this stigma. The new knowledge developed in this project will be used to generate innovate strategies to address stigma experienced by people who consume alcohol and other drugs when accessing drug health services in South Western Sydney Local Area Health District.

Aims

  1. To identify and document experiences of stigma and discrimination among individuals accessing healthcare services in DHS after exiting inpatient withdrawal management;
  2. To explore and analyse how service users understand and frame these experiences, and how, if at all, they affect their ability and willingness to access services;
  3. To identify systemic issues in relevant settings that contribute to stigma and discrimination.

The project investigator team comprised:

  • Professor Suzanne Fraser (ARCSHS, La Trobe University)
  • Dr Adrian Farrugia (ARCSHS, La Trobe University)
  • Dr Michael Edwards (South Western Sydney Local Health District)
  • Ms Stephanie Hocking (South Western Sydney Local Health District)

Research staff

  • Ms Annie Madden, AO

Publications

Farrugia, A., Pienaar, K., Fraser, S., Edwards, M. & Madden, A. (2020). Basic care as exceptional care: Consumer accounts of quality healthcare in Australia. Health Sociology Review. DOI: 10.1080/14461242.2020.1789485.

Fraser, S., Farrugia, A., Moore, D., Edwards, M. & Madden, A. (2020). Exclusion and hospitality: The subtle dynamics of stigma in healthcare access for people emerging from alcohol and other drug withdrawal management treatment. Sociology of Health and Illness, 42 (8), 1801-1820. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.13180.

Farrugia, A., Fraser, S., Edwards, M., Madden, A. & Hocking, S. (2019). Lived experiences of stigma and discrimination among people accessing South Western Sydney Local Health District Drug Health Services. Melbourne: The Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, La Trobe University.