Understanding the experiences of gay men in addiction treatment
Subtitle: a phenomenological study.
Published: 2004
Language: eng
Number of pages: 194
Description: Gay men are a population which have specific needs in our health and social service system. This research explores how some gay men have experienced addiction treatment in the province of Ontario. Through a qualitative study based on phenomenological methods, 10 diverse gay men were asked to tell their story in terms of their addiction treatment experience. The participants had accessed treatment services within the last 5 years and these services included outpatient, day and residential treatment. Using a long-interview format, the researcher listened as the participants told their stories regarding why they accessed treatment services, how they accessed these services, and how over-all experience of treatment impacted them. These interviews were recorded, transcribed and analyzed with the assistance of the software program NUDIST. Several themes emerged that highlight a system that was insensitive to the needs of these gay men. A variety of situations occurred, some very blatant in terms of harassment, and others more subtle yet still harmful in their impact.A focus group was conducted with the participants and the themes that emerged from the transcripts were reviewed. During the focus group participants developed a set of 5 recommendations that they felt must be implemented if the needs of gay men are to be addressed fairly within mainstream treatment services. All the participants agreed to the recommendations that were developed and these will be presented to the Ontario Substance Abuse Bureau in the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.
Notes: Adviser: Judy Globerman.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Toronto, 2004.

Electronic version licensed for access by U. of T. users.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 65-05, Section: A, page: 1964.