Beth Glover Reed

Implementing Trauma-Informed Alcohol and Other Drug and Mental Health Services for Women: Lessons Learned in a Multisite Demonstration Project.

On the basis of the 9-site, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration-funded Women, Co-Occurring Disorders, and Violence Study, this article discusses recommendations for implementing trauma-informed mental health, substance abuse, and other support services. These guidelines for best practices represent the consensus of a diverse trauma work group that drew on both cross-site and site-specific qualitative data.

Issues in the Treatment of Heroin-Addicted Women: A Comparison of Men and Women Entering Two Types of Drug Abuse Programs

A study of 333 heroin-abusing men and women found treatment issues for women which vary across race and differ from those considered important for men. White women tend to have experienced more disruptions and crises and to be linked with other drug abusers. Black women tend to be older and more isolated when they start using drugs; a focus on children, a womans social network, and the development of career options may be particularly useful in their treatment.

Women Clients in Special Women's Demonstration Drug Abuse Treatment Programs Compared with Women Entering Selected Co-Sex Programs

A study comparing characteristics of women in special womens demonstration drug abuse treatment programs with those in selected co-sex programs. Black and White women in womens programs differ from those entering more traditional programs in their referral sources, types and degree of social and financial support, use of community resources, living arrangements, and patterns of criminal involvement and drug use. The need for womens programs, and treatment, policy, and research implications are discussed.

Sex differences, gender and addiction

This review discusses alcohol and other forms of drug addiction as both a sociocultural and biological phenomenon. Sex differences and gender are not solely determined by biology, nor are they entirely sociocultural. The interactions among biological, environmental, sociocultural, and developmental influences result in phenotypes that may be more masculine or more feminine. These gender‐related sex differences in the brain can influence the responses to drugs of abuse, progressive changes in the brain after exposure to drugs of abuse and whether addiction results from drug‐taking experiences. In addition, the basic laboratory evidence for sex differences is discussed within the context of four types of sex/gender differences.

Women in Drug Abuse Treatment Programs: Factors That Influence Retention at Very Early and Later Stages in Two Treatment Modalities. A Summary

A preliminary study of factors associated with incorporation into the program and retention during the first 4 months of treatment among women entering mixed-sex and all-women demonstration drug abuse treatment programs. Prostitution, parents’ deviance, and entering while under legal jeopardy are among the more important characteristics of women less likely to stay in treatment, although these vary across different programs? One relatively small demonstration therapeutic community proved exceptionally able to retain more difficult clients.

Critical Consciousness and Cross-Cultural/Intersectional Social Work Practice: A Case Analysis

Social workers have an ethical responsibility to address the dynamics and consequences of oppression and to promote social justice. Working across cultures and identities requires expanding our comfort zones, owning our power and privilege, and engaging in active self-reflection that interrogates what we hold to be true. These are vital components of “critical consciousness” and critical approaches to practice. This paper presents a complex case example of a refugee Muslim family to articulate the processes that workers can use to deepen critical consciousness when working with clients. The authors describe ways to attend to the complex intersections (of gender, age, ethnicity, religion, immigration status, and socioeconomic status) in multicultural and socially just practice within complex agency and environmental contexts.

A Comparison of Black and White Women Entering Drug Abuse Treatment Programs

A comparison of Black and White women entering methadone maintenance programs and therapeutic communities found similarities with respect to living situation, financial dependency on others, and unemployment. White women, however, experienced more disturbances within the family of origin, early drug use, overdoses, use of different kinds of drugs, suicide attempts, criminal involvement, and linkages with drug-abusing partners. Black women were more likely to have child care responsibilities.

Alcohol-Impaired Driving: Average Quantity Consumed and Frequency of Drinking Do Matter

Objective: The objective of this article is to estimate and validate a logistic model of alcohol-impaired driving using previously ignored alcohol consumption behaviors, other risky behaviors, and demographic characteristics as independent variables. Methods: The determinants of impaired driving are estimated using the US Centers for Disease Control and Preventions (CDC) Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) surveys. Variables used in a logistic model to explain alcohol-impaired driving are not only standard sociodemographic variables and bingeing but also frequency of drinking and average quantity consumed, as well as other risky behaviors. We use interactions to understand how being female and being young affect impaired driving. Having estimated our model using the 1997 survey, we validated our model using the BRFSS data for 1999. Results: Drinking 9 or more times in the past month doubled the odds of impaired driving. The greater average consumption of alcohol per session, the greater the odds of driving impaired, especially for persons in the highest quartile of alcohol consumed. Bingeing has the greatest effect on impaired driving. Seat belt use is the one risky behavior found to be related to such driving. Sociodemographic effects are consistent with earlier research. Being young (18–30) interacts with two of the alcohol consumption variables and being a woman interacts with always wearing a seat belt. Our model was robust in the validation analysis. Conclusions: All 3 dimensions of drinking behavior are important determinants of alcohol-impaired driving, including frequency and average quantity consumed. Including these factors in regressions improves the estimates of the effects of all variables.

Solving problems of disclosure risk while retaining key analytic uses of publicly released microdata.

Measures used to protect subjects in publicly distributed microdata files often have a significant negative impact on key analytic uses of the data. For example, it may be important to analyze subpopulations within a data file such as racial minorities, yet these subjects may present the greatest disclosure risk because their records tend to stand out or be unique. Files or records that are linkable create another type of disclosure risk—common elements between two files can be used to link files with sensitive data to externally available files that disclose identity. Examples of disclosure limitation methods used to address these types of issues include blanking out data, coarsening response categories, or withholding data altogether. However, the very detail that creates the greatest risk also provides insight into differences that are of greatest interest to analysts. Restricted-use agreements that provide unaltered versions of the data may not be available, or only selectively so. The public-use version of the data is very important because it is likely to be the only one to which most researchers, policy analysts, teaching faculty, and students will ever have access. Hence, it is the version from which much of the utility of the data is extracted and often it effectively becomes the historical record of the data collection. This underscores the importance that the disclosure review committee strikes a good balance between protection and utility. In this paper we describe our disclosure review committees (DRC) analysis and resulting data protection plans for two national studies and one administrative data system. Three distinct disclosure limitation methods were employed, taking key uses of the data into consideration, to protect respondents while still providing statistically accurate and highly useful public-use data. The techniques include data swapping, microaggregation, and suppression of detailed geographic data. We describe the characteristics of the data sets that led to the selection of these methods, provide measures of the statistical impact, and give details of their implementations so that others may also utilize them. We briefly discuss the composition of our DRC, highlighting what we believe to be the important disciplines and experience represented by the group.

OxyContin Misuse on a Reservation: Qualitative Reports by American Indians in Talking Circles

Few studies have addressed OxyContin use among American Indians (AIs) on reservations. Eight focus groups were conducted as “talking circles” (2006 and ) with 49 AI adults and youth. An emergent design was utilized in which the initial two circles were planned, but the subsequent six circles evolved from tribal members’ input. Participants reported an increase in OxyContin use; negative effects on individuals, families, and the tribe; a lack of treatment options; and a growing problem on other reservations. Results indicate the need to further research prevalence and patterns of use to design interventions to curtail OxyContin abuse on reservations.