It wasn’t until perhaps a week ago that I started to analyze
the population, at my internship in regards to sex that I became a little
unsettled. At Milestone, the nursing staff is 100% female. There are three
women who work as office staff (one secretary, and two additional financial
roles). I am the only female on the counseling team (of four-five individuals),
there is one participating female on the home team, and one female shelter
staff. There are a maximum of six female beds in detox and ten male beds. The
majority of phone screen intakes, and clients, are men. Is this an issue of
goodness of fit? (Male clients identify more with male counselors). Or, is this inherently sexist seeing as the
availability is limited for female clients, and the working positions females
have typically “caregiving” versus counseling?
For months now, I have shared in the discontent over the
lack of long-term treatment programs available for women in Maine. However, I
had never looked critically at Milestone in terms of sex equity among clients.
It seems like, despite frequent open discussions about female treatment at my
internship, these stereotypes are in some ways being perpetuated.
This really speaks to a larger issue, here, that it is MUCH
more difficult to receive any sort of treatment (let alone treatment with
female counselors) in the state of Maine. This has been wildly frustrating as
an intern attempting to support clients, provide referrals, and successfully aid
women in entering treatment programs of their interest. Frequently, women come
through the program without insurance (either they have been unemployed for so
long they are not receiving insurance, or do not have children so they are
ineligible for Maine Care). Compared to residential treatment programs
available for men, for women, there is a HUGE shortage. Time and time again,
women are prevented from entering long term treatment due to a lack of beds, or
inability to pay the insanely high rates (>$1000 per day at some agencies) without
insurance.
According to Martin & Aston (2014) who completed a study
in which they analyzed scientific literature published on women’s substance
abuse treatment, they found that typically, “women in the drug field [are seen
as] a “special population” with “unique treatment needs.” … [they argue that]
this view not only reinforces a limited understanding of the harms associated
with women’s substance abuse, but might also paradoxically enable programs and
services for women to remain as “add-ons” and/or narrow the range of “gender
sensitive” approaches adopted” (p. 335). If we know that women require no “special
treatment” then why aren’t there more opportunities available?
I’m stuck wondering, how much of this is intentional, how
much of this mal-intentioned, and most often – what does macro social work look
like that could change some of this? How does one petition for increased
treatment programs, or, alternatively, state funded treatment for males and
females?
This is sexism leaping right out at me, and until recently, I
hadn’t even identified it. I am really interested in staying in this field and
finding a balance between micro and macro level work, focused specifically on
females.
Reference:
Martin, F.S., & Aston, S. (2014). A “special population”
with “unique treatment needs”: Dominant
representations of “women’s substance
abuse” and their effects. Contemporary
Drug
Problems, 41, 335-359.
Hello Ellen,
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing about this topic. This past Friday we had a training at Preble Street about detox availability for clients around Southern Maine. It was very clear that women have nearly zero choices for local detox. It was very frustrating.
It's interesting that you say counseling is more male-dominated than nursing. I've never really considered that. I've always thought of counseling as also being female dominated. But I think you're right, sometimes people in need of counseling identify more with a person as similar to the as possible, so in the context of Milestone, male counselors could be more sought after.
Hello Ellen,
ReplyDeleteThanks for writing about this topic. This past Friday we had a training at Preble Street about detox availability for clients around Southern Maine. It was very clear that women have nearly zero choices for local detox. It was very frustrating.
It's interesting that you say counseling is more male-dominated than nursing. I've never really considered that. I've always thought of counseling as also being female dominated. But I think you're right, sometimes people in need of counseling identify more with a person as similar to the as possible, so in the context of Milestone, male counselors could be more sought after.
Ellen,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog! Joe beat me to the punch, I was at the same Preble Street training, and there is certainly not the same detox availability for women as there is for men.
Your blog caused me to think about several issues. First, you note the lack of female counselors at Milestone. Oddly, when I tell people that I am going into social work, the most typical response I receive is something along the lines of "that's great, they need more male counselors!" This has always made sense to me, as in my past experiences working as in-home and in-school support has have always been more female than male clinicians. This is at three different agencies, and is certainly true at Preble Street (though it is more of a case management role in that location). I would love to see a study on the actual gender makeup for LCSW's locally and nationwide, and in particular fields. Maybe males do tend to gravitate towards substance abuse more than females.
Perhaps relatedly, I have noticed that at the Resource Center there is significantly more male consumers than female. Does this indicate that there are more homeless males than females, or do males just tend to use the Resource Center more than females? Many of our consumers, regardless of gender, struggle with substance abuse issues. Is substance abuse more prevalent among males? Could this be the reason males gravitate towards this type of counseling as you have found at Milestone?
I know these are just a lot of questions, but unfortunately I don't have the time to search through peer-reviewed articles on these issues. It is interesting to think about though.
Best,
Nick