Alcohol and drug treatment for women: clinicians' beliefs and practice

The present paper reports on the results of a telephone survey of 217 alcohol and drug treatment clinicians on their beliefs and practice, in relation to service provision for women. Nurses comprised the second largest professional group surveyed. Seventy-eight percent of clinicians believed that women's treatment needs differed from men's and 74% reported a range of approaches and interventions, such as assisting with parenting issues and referral to women-only programmes. Several differences emerged in relation to approaches and interventions used, depending on clinician gender, work setting and proportion of women on clinicians' caseload. Implications for mental health nursing include the need to more systematically incorporate gender-based treatment needs into practice and undergraduate and postgraduate education and training programmes.