Neoliberalism, Control of Trans and Gender Diverse Bodies and Social Work.

Purpose: This paper explores how neoliberal ideologies inform both social and political agendas that influence how social workers can provide support to trans and gender diverse people attempting to access gender-affirming healthcare, using an analysis of social workers' experiences working in mental health in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Method: Qualitative semi-structured interviews provide a perspective of the experiences of social workers in Nova Scotia and how their ability to provide mental health services to trans and gender diverse people is impacted by neoliberalism.

Results: Most social workers attributed the structural context of working within a bio-medical system as contributing to social workers being disempowered, undermined, and not able to practice according to the values of their profession thus limiting their ability to provide affirming mental health supports to trans and gender diverse people in ways that align with their social work professional ethics and values.

Links Between Romantic Relationship Dysfunction and Drinking Behaviors Are Moderated by Gender and Age.

Objective: Romantic relationship dysfunction is a risk for subsequent alcohol use, with some research suggesting gender differences in this link. We evaluated how different aspects of relationship dysfunction are related to different drinking behaviors and whether these associations vary by gender. We further examined the role of age as a potential moderator of this gender difference.

Challenging the Constraints of Neoliberalism and Biomedicalism: Repositioning Social Work in Mental Health.

This article explores the impact of neoliberalism and biomedicalism on social work mental health care practice through presenting the results of a Canadian provincial study which illustrates the experiences of social work service users, providers, and supervisors. While Canada has a universal health care program, the intensification of the free-market approach is evident in the shifts from public sector support to growing rationalization and marked cutbacks to the provision of social welfare services. The specific impact of neoliberal economic restraint on social justice in mental health services has pressured practitioners to adopt medicalized, short-term strategies, under efficiency-based models.

Dismantling Addiction Services: Neoliberal, Biomedical and Degendered Constraints on Social Work Practice.

Background: This research was conducted in response to concerns reported by social work practitioners to a Canadian College of Social Work which indicated that their practice was constrained by ideological and system limitations in publicly funded mental health and addiction systems.

Method: The dislocation theory of addiction which posits globalization and neoliberalism is linked to addiction rates worldwide, serves as an analytical frame to examine findings from fifty interviews, three focus groups and an online survey with one hundred and fifteen respondents.

Results: Themes specific to social work practice in addiction services referred to neoliberalism, stigma, biomedicalization, trauma and addiction, elimination of women services, shrinking services and privatization.

Harm Reduction for Women in Treatment for Alcohol Use Problems: Exploring the Impact of Dominant Addiction Discourse.

The objectives of this study were to profile the landscape of women's alcohol use programs in Canada. We explored service users' and providers' beliefs about alcohol use problems and how this affected treatment choices for alcohol use problems. Data were collected through standardized measures alongside in-depth semi-structured narrative interviews in six women's alcohol treatment sites in Canada.

Exploring perceptions of alcohol use as self-medication for depression among women receiving community-based treatment for alcohol problems.

Although epidemiological literature reports a significant overlap between depression and alcoholism among women, the dynamics of this relationship requires further exploration. The present paper documents significant lifetime histories of depression among women in treatment for alcohol problems, and presents findings on these women's experiences of the relationship between depression and alcohol use problems. In this community-based treatment sample, 18 out of 18 women participating in qualitative interviews reported histories of depression and almost 80% were currently using anti-depressant medication.

Exploring differential patterns of situational risk for binge eating and heavy drinking.

This study was designed to compare risk situations for binge eating vs. heavy drinking among women who struggle with both problems. Participants were 41 women in treatment for an alcohol problem who also self-reported binge eating.

Why do women with alcohol problems binge eat? Exploring connections between binge eating and heavy drinking in women receiving treatment for alcohol problems.

Questionnaires assessing heavy drinking and binge eating were administered to 58 women with alcohol problems. A sub-sample of the binge-eaters then participated in qualitative interviews about their perceptions of the connections between their two problems. Seventy-one percent self-identified as binge-eaters with most reporting 'severe' binge eating.

Experiences of harm reduction among women with alcohol use problems.

This paper explores women's choice of controlled drinking or abstinence goals in harm reduction treatment programs for alcohol use problems. Situated within debates about controlled or abstinence goals for alcohol use, this research project provides a specific focus on women's treatment needs. We explore evidence which reveals that women in treatment for alcohol problems often hold deeply internalized dominant social ideologies on addiction.