Transcript Dangerous Attitud

Dangerous Attitudes:
Stigma, Discrimination &
Injecting Drug Use
Co –authors:
Annie Madden
Laura Liebelt
Jude Byrne
Overview
• Overview of National Anti-Discrimination
Campaign
• Overview of market research AIVL
commissioned as the first stage of a National
Anti-Discrimination Campaign:
– Why we commissioned the market research
– Market research methodology
– Main themes from the market research
– Recommendations from the market research
AIVL National
Anti-Discrimination Project
• National Anti-Discrimination Project:
– Market Research Phase
– Stigma & Discrimination Literature & Research
Analysis Report
– Campaign Development & Evaluation
– Campaign National Roll Out
– Online Reporting System
– National Healthcare Student Training Module
Market Research:
Objectives
• Better understanding of community
perceptions of people who inject drugs
(PWIDs);
• Exploring existing stereotypes;
• Understanding why the stigma/prejudice
exists;
• Exploring how community might respond to
messages aimed at addressing misconceptions
and prejudices.
Market Research:
Methods
• November 2009 – February 2010
• 1st Stage - Stakeholder Engagement – Defining
the Issues:
– Delegates attending AIVL’s 2009 AGM & National
Meeting
• 2nd Stage - Focus Groups – Sydney & Adelaide
– Medical & health professionals
– General public
Sample of the group profiles with the general public
and medical professionals focus groups
Group
Target group
1
2
Demographic
Parents of 15-28 year olds
General Public
3
Regular / occasional drug users
(non –injectors) age 18-24
Attitudinal criteria
Parents must be aware that their children use recreational drugs
and relatively comfortable with this
Use illicit drugs one or more times a month (non- injecting)
18-30 year olds
Location
Sydney
Sydney
Adelaide
Respond positively to attitudinal statements that indicate that enjoy
4
5
Over 30 years of age
Medical Professionals
N/A
use of alcohol and / or illicit drugs themselves
Adelaide
Inclusion of GPs, pharmacists, nurses in emergency units
Sydney
Market Research:
General Public
• All felt there was a clear line of what was not
acceptable in drug taking:
– Social occasions were acceptable, using drugs alone were not, seen as
undesirable when it became an ‘addiction’ (notions of ‘addiction’ based
heavily on stereotypes)
• Attitudes Towards People Who Inject Drugs:
–
–
–
–
–
–
Very negative;
Saw as people where drugs are their only priority in life;
Would not associate with PWIDs;
Scared of PWIDs – unpredictable and volatile
Fear of contagion – particularly risk of HIV and Hep C - needle stick
But then admitted that didn’t knowingly know anyone who injects or
has injected drugs – entirely reliant on stereotypes
Market Research:
General Public
Attitudes Towards People Who Inject Drugs cont...
– No empathy as line had been crossed and users
aware of consequences
– All respondent were aware of the labelling and
stereotyping and felt no discomfort about it.
– In fact they thought it was important to ensure
drug users were discriminated against, so they did
not spread the behaviour
• Stigma Exists for a Reason – good for drug users,
good for community as a whole as it acts to prevent
people taking up the behaviour!!!
Market Research:
Medical Professionals
• Attitudes towards PWIDs varied with the
experience of medical professionals :
– The more experienced were more likely to be understanding about the
difficulties that people who inject drugs may face in certain situations than
the less experienced medical professionals in the group discussion
– The experienced medical professionals in the group discussion had
generally chosen to work in areas where they came into contact with
PWIDs
• Still expressed many views and opinions similar
to general public, especially in regard to physical
and social stereotypes.
Market Research:
Medical Professionals
Mains causes of stigma and discrimination among
medical professionals includes:
• care of PWIDs tends to be considered relatively time
consuming, especially in time poor places such as
emergency rooms at hospitals and pharmacies;
• lack of knowledge and experience with PWIDs
throughout education - medical professionals tend to
begin their working life with the same perceptions of
PWIDs as the general community, but have the
additional responsibility for having to treat them
medically;
Market Research:
Medical Professionals
• perceived negative impact on other patients and the
image of surgery or pharmacy, which ultimately impacts
on the business; and
• the apparent inconsistency between the harm inflicted
by PWIDs on themselves and the goal of medical
professionals in providing for health, resulting in medical
professionals questioning the reason that the person
who inject drugs may be seeking their assistance.
• The assumptions is that people are drug seeking –
perpetuates negative stereotypes.
Market Research:
Recommendations
• Too difficult to change all community attitudes:
– Directly challenging strong beliefs against PWIDs likely to
be ineffectual;
– Concepts that evoke sympathy for PWIDs for no apparent
reason or tended towards a strategy of ‘normalising’
injecting resulted in angry reactions among some of the
general public.
• Will have to work with current perceptions and
prejudices: the fact that these may not be true or accurate
does not matter.
• ‘Humanising‘ those that are trying to overcome an
addiction: one possible answer...
• Jody has been an injecting drug user for
a number of years. She’s doing all she
can to kick her addiction and is now on a
methadone program.
• Prejudice against drug users from
everyday people makes fighting the
addiction harder
• Give those fighting their addiction your
support
Market Research – Communication Issues
WHO IS THE INJECTING DRUG USER?
David
Business man
Ruth
Mother
Jim
Homeless
Sue
Teacher
Gary
Builder
• Sadly Jim is homeless because of some mental health issues
• And David, who runs his own business is an injecting drug user
Leave your prejudices at the door …
Market Research:
Recommendations
• Some of the positive and negative responses to this
concept were:
• “Can be anyone, not just homeless people and
prostitutes.”
• “It’s very important that people separate the action
of injecting from the image of a junky on the street.”
• “Can make drugs normalized”
• “It says that even if you inject drugs you can still be
successful. Do we really want people to think like
that?”
WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS
• Alcohol causes more social issues, more domestic violence,
and costs the community more than injecting drug users
BRUSHING IT UNDER THE CARPET DOESN’T
MEAN IT DOESN’T EXIST
‘AT HOME’
‘AT NEEDLE EXCHANGE’
THESE PEOPLE SHARE SOMETHING IN COMMON
They all inject drugs …
YOU WOULDN’T DISCRIMINATE AMONGST THESE PEOPLE
Woman
HIV Positive
Mental Health
Physical
Disability
Gay
• So why discriminate against these
Injecting Drug User
Injecting Drug User
Injecting Drug User
Black
Market Research - Recommendations
• Key difficulty - strong perception that the stigma is
perceived to exist for a reason.
• Current social and legal environment - many feel that
stigma and discrimination toward people who inject
drugs is an important means of containing the practice
and should exist.
• Younger respondents tended to respond more positively
towards the concepts overall than older respondents.
• Women (of all ages) were more likely to have some
empathy towards people in difficult circumstances.
• Communications aimed at younger people and women
may be successful.
Further Information
• Market Research report available at:
www.aivl.org.au
(in ‘What’s New;)
• Contact:
[email protected]
[email protected]
“Think an ad blaming McDonalds for a man’s
death is a little extreme? Check out this
Australian spot, which likens a mother feeding
her child a hamburger to injecting him with
heroin. It ends with the question, "You wouldn't
inject your children with junk. So why are you
feeding it to them?" Perhaps because addictive,
dangerous drugs aren't the exact same thing as
unhealthy food?” Eater National