Phyllis Dance

Positive health beliefs and behaviours in the midst of difficult lives: women who inject drugs.

BACKGROUND It is assumed that people who inject drugs (PWID) care little about their health. This emerges from social and moral perceptions of PWID and is framed by research that focuses on their morbidity and mortality. Drawing on the narratives of Australian women who inject drugs, we examined the salience of health for our participants and the contexts that structure their descriptions of health and wellbeing. METHODS We conducted qualitative interviews with 83 women who inject drugs and live with hepatitis C virus (HCV) to explore their experiences of health and health care seeking. FINDINGS Although the interviews focused on HCV, women discussed their health within broader contexts of drug dependence, unstable housing, unemployment, financial strain, other health issues and relationships. Concern about HCV was less pronounced than concerns about other health problems and socio-economic circumstances. Broadening the focus of health beyond drug use alone, womens narratives strongly suggest that PWID can and do care about their health. CONCLUSIONS Whilst research and policy often focus on health problems and barriers to health amongst PWID, the women in our sample maintained positive health beliefs and behaviours. Much like other members of society, their health priorities are contextualised by cultural, economic and political factors. This suggests that health interventions aimed at women who inject drugs could build upon the salience of a range of health priorities as well as integrating these with structural interventions designed to improve housing and economic status.

Alcohol, other drug use, and gambling among Australian Capital Territory (ACT) workers in the building and related industries

Aims: To describe the prevalence of alcohol, drug, and gambling problems among building and related workers in the ACT. Methods: Workers at 9 major construction and maintenance sites in the ACT received self-administered questionnaires, which they completed on site and returned to researchers. Findings: Workers returned 254 usable questionnaires. Response rates varied by location but were between 70 and 80% on larger sites. They reported high levels of tobacco, cannabis and amphetamine use and 19% reported self-diagnosed alcohol problems, 11.5% gambling problems and 18% problems in their family life. Conclusions: This study found high levels of alcohol, and other drug use among building and related workers and high levels of self-diagnosed problems associated with this use and with gambling. While an existing union-led program aims to reduce harm on the worksite, the levels of self-reported family and gambling problems found in this study suggest that more needs to be done for workers and their families off worksites.

Reinforced Biographies Among Women Living With Hepatitis C

In a growing body of social research it is suggested that hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is a low priority for people who inject drugs. We expand on the evidence to explore the link between identity and health using biographical adaptation theories. We examined experiences of HCV infection and illness among women who inject drugs, women who are no longer injecting drugs, and women who have never injected drugs. We investigated the relationship between identity and illness experience and found that illness does not simply dislocate one’s biographical trajectory. For women who used drugs the shared symbolism of HCV infection was understood and accepted via a self-identity linked to poverty and experience of injecting drugs. Rather than disrupting their expected life trajectory, the narratives of most women incorporated the disease experience within their life story, confirming their identity as a person who injected drugs and as someone with constant and serious life stressors.

Internal or Infernal Devices: Experiences of Contraception Among Australian Women Living With Hepatitis C

In this article we seek to delineate the experiences of contraceptive use by Australian women living with hepatitis C. Using semi-structured, in-depth interviews, 109 women with hepatitis C from two cities in Australia, Melbourne (Victoria) and Canberra (the Australian Capital Territory), were interviewed about their alcohol and other drug use, their contraceptive history, and their experiences of hepatitis C. We aimed to understand why such a high proportion of women living with hepatitis C (66%) had previously reported that they were not currently using contraception. Many women had used contraception at some stage of their lives but were no longer using it because they had experienced contraceptive failure or uncomfortable side effects. Others were concerned about the impact of contraception on their fertility, were planning to get pregnant or considered themselves to be celibate. Hepatitis C appeared to have little impact on their contraceptive practices, but some womens illicit drug use had an important influence. Illicit drug use was, for some, an encouragement to seek long-term forms of contraception that reduced their chances of pregnancy while for others drug taking hampered their contraceptive use. In compliance with health promotion campaigns of the last two decades, women were generally more concerned about preventing sexually transmissible infections than pregnancies, particularly with new or casual partners.

A review of Australian health privacy regulation regarding the use and disclosure of identified data to conduct data linkage

Objective: To review Australian legislation about privacy, focusing on provisions within the regulations to conduct health research using identified data and lobby for regulatory change in the ACT.