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Rethinking substance abuse treatment with sex workers: How does the capability approach inform practice?
Journal article   Peer reviewed

Rethinking substance abuse treatment with sex workers: How does the capability approach inform practice?

Rikki Patton, Anastasia Snyder and Michael Glassman
Journal of substance abuse treatment, v 45(2), pp 196-205
01 Aug 2013
PMID: 23523250

Abstract

Capability approach DATOS Sex workers Substance abuse treatment
Substance abuse treatment providers commonly provide services for men and women involved in sex work. Sex workers often present to treatment with a complicated array of challenges (M. L. Burnette et al., 2008a; D. C. Ling, W. C. W. Wong, E. A. Holroyd, & S. A. Grayson, 2007; M. Young, C. Boyd, & A. Hubbell, 2000), and, while many scholars have posited the need for adapted interventions for sex workers (L. Nuttbrock, A. Rosenblum, S. Magura, C. Villano, & J. Wallace, 2004; A. Weiner, 1996), there is still a lull in the development of comprehensive, tailored services for sex workers seeking substance abuse treatment (L. Nuttbrock et al., 2004). Augmenting this gap is the lack of a clear framework through which to understand the challenges that sex workers endure and how their challenges may differ from treatment-seeking non-sex workers. In order to address this gap, the current study explored the utility of a social justice framework, namely the Capability Approach, in predicting sex work involvement among a substance-abusing sample. We hypothesize that increased challenges to achieving capability will predict sex work involvement among a substance-abusing sample. Results suggest that the Capability Approach is a useful framework that can be used to differentiate between sex workers and their substance-abusing counterparts and that sex workers experience greater challenges to achieving capability. As such, the current findings support recent calls in the literature for the development of tailored services to meet the needs of this population.

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being
#10 Reduced Inequalities
#16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Source: SDGs in the Output

InCites Highlights

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Psychology, Clinical
Substance Abuse
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