In Australia, women have been shown to be as likely as men to use methamphetamine weekly. But women make up less than a third of people who access treatment for methamphetamine use disorder.   

To mark International Women’s Day, NCCRED is proud to share research published last year about the experiences of women who use methamphetamine. 

Watch our video abstract: 

The paper, published in BMC Health Services Research, is based on interviews with 11 women recruited from an inner-city hospital in Sydney.  

Barriers to treatment

Some of the major barriers to treatment included:  

• Methamphetamine use being linked with coercive control and family violence.
• The experience of stigma from institutions, including healthcare providers
• Fear of having their children taken away, or being judged by their families and communities 

The paper also identifies a few different ways forward to break down these barriers, including:  

• Non-judgmental care that understands the unique stigma faced by women who use methamphetamine 
• Working with the person and their families to better support treatment and recovery  
• Integrated and structurally competent care, including a single-entry point and consistency with a trusted care provider that can address needs across multiple domains.  

For more information on women’s experiences of methamphetamine use and treatment, you can also watch our webinar on the same topic from October 2023.

The National Centre for Clinical Research on Emerging Drugs is made up of a consortium of the following four institutions