Evaluating the service provision for ethnic minorities in Islington in the treatment of substance misuse

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how local drug services use their senior staff to respond to emerging ethnic groups presenting to treatment using flexible thinking and innovative processes. Design/methodology/approach – The methodology was a case study design that used a semi-structured questionnaire that looked at two drug services and their staff’s influence on service delivery in different boroughs of east London. Findings – The research found very innovative findings from the two boroughs. The boroughs had different racial mixes and therefore differing populations presenting to their local drug services. However, they used flexible approaches to structure their services to engage with emerging ethnic minority populations in drug treatment. From the findings, these different approaches and structures of providing drug treatment were very important. Approaches, for example, of clinical staff offering a “rapid assessment” are particularly important in engaging and retaining ethnic minority populations. Also, using flexible thinking within the staff team enables drug services to adapt treatments to be flexible in responding to emerging ethnic populations. Practical implications – This paper shows that thinking in designing approaches to drug treatment shows that ethnic minority populations can be successfully engaged in drug treatment. This has implications for drug treatment nationally and across Europe where there are “emerging” ethnic populations presenting for drug treatment. Originality/value – This paper shows that drug services can adapt and change to their different ethnic minority populations if they can able to be flexible in their clinical approach to service provision.

Challenges to providing culturally sensitive drug interventions for black and Asian minority ethnic (BAME) groups within UK youth justice systems

“…Ethnic minorities are not homogenous; coupled with a lack of reliable and valid data available in the UK on substance use across ethnicities, it is inherently difficult to develop tailored support packages for such diverse young people (Wanigaratne et al , 2003). As mentioned by some of our participants, across drug treatment services there are “new” ethnic minority populations such as Eastern Europeans who are now presenting more frequently to services that are not prepared to meet their needs for culturally appropriate treatment approaches (Fernandez, 2015). Some practitioners also perceived family norms to impede engagement of young people, perhaps inadvertently using cultural stereotypes to explain why they struggle to effectively intervene with some minority groups.…”

“…Within the research on BAME adult use of substance use services, perceptions of a lack of cultural diversity and sensitivity among service providers is seen to act as a barrier to help-seeking (see Fountain, 2009). While also citing cultural stigma as a further barrier, this research found that many from BAME communities find services difficult to engage with individually and have a desire for more family involvement in their treatment, an approach which was not usually made available to them (Fountain, 2009; Fernandez, 2015). This research does not differentiate between older and younger generations however, and it is not clear if, or by how much, young people’s preferences for substance use intervention differ from those of adults.…”

“…While there are some good practice examples of these approaches within the voluntary adult sector (e.g. Fernandez, 2015), there is little UK based research that focusses on young people within compulsory substance use services or from within the youth justice system. What is available is of varying methodological quality and the literature is inconsistent in its use of definitions of ethnic groups and drugs included (Beddoes et al , 2010).…”