Brenda McGarrity
TheResearch Proposal LGBTQ Communi ty and Recovery of Substanc es
Abstract
The study is trying trying to determine determine if if having a specic specic substance substance abuse treatment for queer individuals increases positive experience in treatment as well as if it increases chances for long term sobriety The independent variable in this study is substance abuse treatment The dependent variable is the experiences in treatment and long term recovery outcomes There is also a control comparison group which would be the heterosexual group that goes through the regular religiously a!liated treatment center program The methods used included having multiple specically chosen demographic groups ta"e di#erent forms of treatment To learn about people$s experiences and to learn about sobriety outcomes the study used surveys to obtain the information The value of the expected outcomes would be nding more e#ective routes for substance abuse treatment for queer individuals Introduction and review of the literature
The questions questions this study is trying to answer answer are% are% does having having a substance abuse treatment specically for queer individuals signicantly increase positive experiences in treatment& 'oes it increase chances of long term sobriety for queer individuals& The hypothesis of this study is the more intently the substance abuse treatment addresses an individual$s identity specically the needs of queer identied individuals the more positive they will li"ely feel about their treatment experience (t is also hypothesi)ed that the more intently the treatment also tends to the specic needs of queer individuals the greater li"elihood that they will participate in long term recovery recovery The independent variable variable in this study is substance abuse treatment The dependent variable is the experiences in treatment and long term recovery outcomes There is also a control comparison group which would be the heterosexual group that goes through the regular religiously a!liated treatment center program
*or most people facing addiction to substances+ trying to get clean is hard ,ee"ing recovery can be a path of struggle from going into inpatient treatment+ to outpatient treatment and even nding the right support groups to continue your life in recovery This can be further complicated if the courts are involved+ if you$re wor"ing class+ or impoverished (t$s complicated even more if there are cultural or religious barriers To ta"e these scenarios into an even bigger challenge+ what if you weren$t placed in groups where you felt you belonged+ what if you were bullied or didn$t feel safe in the spaces where you are in theory supposed to feel the most support in your recovery& The scenarios scenarios above are are -ust a few of the things things some .GBT/ .GBT/ people face while see"ing recovery The .GBT/ community is a particularly vulnerable group when within an already vulnerable population of people+ people facing addiction to substances Both groups face a lot of stigmati)ation from the larger society Most of the studies that have been done on these intersecting identities have been done in urban settings of big cities Most of the research has been done on what+ and how much people in the .GBT/ community use ,ome research has been done on why they use+ while less research has been done on the experiences they had in treatment and within long term recovery options This study has been based o# of and around the missing information of 0 di#erent literature pieces 1ne of the literature pieces found tal"ed about substance abuse among gay men+ lesbians+ 2 bisexuals of each sex The article did not investigate substance abuse among gender non3conforming fol"s+ trans identied fol"s or others in the queer community 4lthough this article brought up that there are some .GBT/ specic recovery options out there+ it also addressed that there is only a handful of inpatient treatment centers specically for .GBT/ fol"s and how many outpatient facilities lac" a .GBT/ group option This article$s sample was a convince sample so all participants in this sample participated in a 56 step program or "new someone who attended a 56 step program in a large urban queer community area The
study found that fol"s in the sample who were treated in a speciali)ed .GBT substance abuse program or group were more li"ely to report being abstinent later in life and reported higher levels of both therapeutic support and connection and lower levels of leaving treatment The study actually found that the speciali)ed treatment was the only factor that was a signicant predictor of the person$s current abstinence The study also found that being bisexual was a negative predictor of abstinence at the end of treatment This indicated to the author that it may be due to encountering more di!culties in treatment than gay individuals This also implies that bisexual individuals have di#erent needs than gay individuals+ even though the two groups are viewed as a unied group with no speciali)ed services for bisexual individuals 7,enreich + 6889: 'ue to the lac" of ac"nowledgment of trans or gender non3conforming fol"s or others in within the queer community it could be assumed that these individuals would potentially encounter more barriers than even bisexual individuals in treatment This would need to be researched more for those populations and their experiences This contributed to my study because ( wanted to represent di#erent identities within the queer community and see if the identities had di#erent results in response to the di#erent forms of treatment options 4n article that$s focus was on in;uences+ treatment and prevention for addiction in .GBT communities brought brought up the historical factors that can potentially lead to substance abuse in this population The article also tal"ed about unique cultural features that could also contribute to substance abuse which in turn would need culturally sensitive treatment (t also addressed social and interpersonal stressors on .BGT fol"s that can lead to substance abuse and the importance of overcoming discrimination inside and outside the walls of treatment programs This author also commented on the lac" of literature on transgender fol"s+ but also failed to mention other fol"s in the queer community that are not tal"ed about such as gender non3 conforming or 4 sexual or pan sexual etc This author also tal"ed about the
need of research loo"ing at intersectionality of gender and ethnic minorities to develop a greater understanding of how to serve these fol"s The main point of this article was that their needs to be more attention on strength based models+ resiliency+ and prevention for those in the .GBT population facing substance abuse 7Bruba"er + 6856: This article contributed to my study because it once again highlighted a lac" of representation of specic queer identities (t also contributed ideas about what "inds of things would need to be addressed in treatment such as oppression This study helped me develop many of my survey questions 4nother article was loo"ing at what "ind of drugs specic groups in the .GBT community tend to use This article also loo"ed at possible reasons for fol"s to be abusing substances 1ne of the main points gained from this article is that among the .GBT group there are di#erent sub3groups+ the sub3 groupings proving to be meaningful to inform treatment approaches for individuals The study done seemed to nd that sub3groups tended to use certain drugs 7at least in this sample:+ which has the potential to help professionals better examine and address individual$s needs for treatment based on drug of choice as well as the individuals identity 7
homophobia or internali)ed negative societal attitudes if it applies to the individual The article focused a lot on the challenges that specically the gay male identied population face in the >, and what the author thought to be e#ective ways of serving these individuals (t also touched on relapse and triggers and how di#erent drugs e#ect this population The article ended tal"ing about the importance of continuing this "ind of research and the need for the topic to have more clinical attention 7'rew+ 6856: The importance of this research and the need for clinical attention should not -ust be aimed at gay identied males but on the whole queer community (t$s important for professionals to loo" all the factors that a#ect these di#erent sub3groups within the queer community see"ing recovery+ so that they can be served better and have a greater chance of being in long term recovery This article contributed to my study in terms of wanting to include measures or potential limitations if relapse occurred or if the participants dropped out of treatment This article article made me address address in my my study the potential of of someone dropping dropping out of treatment and then not being found or refusing to continue to participate The last article article used tal"ed tal"ed about about resiliency resiliency in getting getting sober sober and sustaining sobriety among older lesbians with alcoholism The study interviewed a small sample of older white lesbian woman who were educated+ middle class individuals who came from urban settings and had a year of sobriety ?hat came from the study was a greater understanding of the importance of having culturally sensitive treatment provisions for individuals This article also touched on many things that were brought up in other articles li"e the di!culties and challenges in attaining and sustaining sobriety This author really stressed the importance of support systems in attaining and maintaining sobriety as well as those supports being "nowledgeable and sensitive to the individuals gender identity and substance use This would mean that support systems would have to educate themselves on gender identity and the experiences of those
identities (t would also mean that support systems would need to educate themselves on substance e#ects and e#ective treatments for these substances 7Rowen+ 685@: This article laid the foundation in my study to be about various levels of support ( wanted to test how various "inds of treatment support a#ected the queer community ( wanted to measure li"elihood of better treatment experiences in relation to treatment geared specically to an individual$s gender identity This article also showed the importance of allowing an individual to be their own voice in reporting how treatment is goingAe#ecting them Method or study desin
?ith all the information gathered from above the following study design was created Sample selection
ach group would consist of 56 participants ,o there would be a total of C8 participants The various treatment options would be paid for by the research study for the participant$s involvement in the study The study would be advertised to treatment facilities and to social service agencies around the >, to gain participants Participants would not have to have all the same start datesD this will allow all participants to start as soon as they are able to avoid them changing their mind in starting their recovery process Participant demographics
The participant participant demographi demographics cs would consist consist of a heterosexual heterosexual group group that would be a quota sample of Minneapolis+ Minnesota Minneapolis was chosen because it is one of the few locations of a queer specic substance abuse treatment center The other @ group demographics would consist of 6 gay identied men+ 6 lesbian identied women+ 6 Trans men+ 6 Trans women+ 6 gender non3conforming+ and 6 other queer identied fol"s
Instruments used or developed
,urveys would be used to collect data on participant$s experiences as well as trac" their sobriety with the various treatments ,urveys would be self3assed ,urvey questions will include but are not limited to% how accessible was treatment for you& ?ould you have gotten treatment if it wasn$t paid for by the study& ?hat has been your treatment experience& Eow safe had you felt in treatment& Eow open have you been in treatment& Eave you thought about leaving or left& 'id gender (dentity ever come up& (f so what was that experience li"e& Eow do you feel about the treatment center sta#+ counselors+ or curriculum& ?hat was your experience with your peers li"e& The studies studies budget would would include include the cost of surveys+ surveys+ survey mailing+ mailing+ and traveling cost of participants+ Treatment costs for participants and pay for data and survey collectors+ and publishingAediting costs The brea"down of costs% ,urveys% C8 participants x @ copies of surveys F 6@8 surveys 6@8 ,urveys x print cost of @59 F 5880C8 ,urvey administration costs% 50 x H hrs F @0 x C8 participants F 6+5C8 x @ surveys F 58+I88 Traveling Traveling costs% costs% @I queer participants participants x 6+888 air air fair F 9C+888 9C+888 J 7@8 cab cab fair x @I queer participants F 5+968: F 9=+968 Total Total xpected xpected
The study would would consist of of @ groups groups of fol"s who identify in in the queer queer community community There would be a 0 th comparison group that would be made up of heterosexual counterparts ach group would enter a form of substance abuse treatment 1ne group would go to the Pride (nstitute 7a .GBT substance abuse treatment center:D the second group would go to a
treatment center with a .GBT support group available The third group would go to a regular religiously a!liated treatment center with a .GBT support group option The fourth group would go to a regular religiously a!liated treatment center without any .GBT option The 0 th group which consists of heterosexuals who would go to a regular religiously a!liated treatment center The participants participants will ta"e ta"e their their rst survey survey half way throug through h their treatment experience and again at the end of treatment The participants will ta"e 6 more surveys H months and C months after completing treatment to have a better understanding of the sustainability of participant$s recovery The reason reason the Hrd Hrd 2 @th queer group and the heterosexual group are in religiously a!liated treatment programs is because they are the most common forms of treatment available in the >, Religiously based substance abuse treatment largely stems from historical contexts of religious treatment centers and 44A56 steps being written by two religious straight+ white+ middle class men !rediction of study outcome
The expected expected outcome outcome would be that queer queer individuals individuals would have have better treatment outcomes and experiences if they went to an exclusively queer inpatient treatment center (f the expected outcome does occur and this study supports the hypothesis it would hopefully lead to exclusively queer treatment centers becoming more accessible 1ne of the ways queer treatment centers could become more accessible would be if more queer treatment centers were created 4nother way would be if transportation to these treatment centers was covered 4nother accessibility issue that would need to be addressed is insurance and if they will help cover speciali)ed treatment centers "iscussion of the sini#cance of e$%ected results
The results results of the study study would be applied to the the human service service eld of of substance abuse and addiction (f human service professionals want every person to have an equal chance to having a successful recovery we would need to o#er the most e#ectively "nown treatment (t would be unethical to ignore the results of the study and not give queer individuals adequate access to substance abuse treatment specic to their needs if it was found that specic .GBT treatment showed a signicant di#erence in outcomes This study would would contribute contribute a lot in in terms of available available data data The data data currently available in various library data bases in fairly limited ?e are currently at the point where people are starting to as" these "inds of research questions and are starting to nd this information My study will help build that library on .GBT/ topicsA substance abuse topics Limitations of the study
The limitations limitations of this study study include include but are are not limited to the planned planned and crafted participant demographics of the queer groups This might not have the most accurate depiction of a whole group of people and would need to have this study re3done or have similar studies done to help validate this studies results 1ne of the limitations of the study is that in theory people not from the state of Minnesota who participated might have more self3driven motivation for treatment because it is li"ely that the queer participants might be coming from out of state to participate and might not have had the opportunity otherwise 'ue to this+ the queer participants might have started the study with more self3motivation than the heterosexual comparison group 4nother limitation is that the Pride (nstitute treatment center only has I beds available at a time and so at this point it would not realistically be able to ta"e in 56 participants for the study 4 few other limitations include the survey questions which might not have been all3inclusive of experience di#erences The survey questions also
might have been leading to the participants The study might not have had the most accurate budget+ so the budget should attempt to be higher in order to ma"e sure all costs would be covered 4nother limitation might be unexpected costs People might leave treatment early and might refuse to participate in the study after leaving treatment ,urvey questions would have questions about if participants wanted to leave or did leave treatment or relapsed or wanted to relapse+ but the limitation might be nding and getting people to participate in the survey after leaving treatment 1ther limitations would include the study not following them for up to 0 years after the study+ chec"ing in with the participants once every year 4nother limitation would be not including other factors that might lead to a relapse throughout treatment or after treatment 4re the relapse triggers related to gender identity& 4nother limitation that isn$t factored in is when they leave treatment did they stay in areas that supported queer sobriety& 'id they go bac" home& ?hat environments are they around after treatment and how do those spaces factor into long term recovery or relapse& Conclusion
4ssuming that the study indicated that queer individuals do show signicantly better outcomes and experiences with a .GBT specic treatment center+ it would prove a basis for creating more .GBT specic treatment centers 4dvocating 2 creating more .GBT specic treatment centers around the >, would ma"e this form of treatment more accessible to those that would benet from this treatment (n ma"ing this option more accessible by location there is higher potential that state insurance might be able to cover this treatment (f state insurance still wouldn$t cover an individual to access this treatment+ this study would allow for the argument of ethics in terms of what is "nown to be more benecial for queer individual$s success in recovery The hope is that this study would help lead the way for .GBT
individuals to have more accessibility to substance abuse treatment that is geared towards addressing their specic needs holistically as a .GBT individual see"ing recovery recovery
References
van ,enreich 76889: 'emographic+ Bac"ground+ and Treatment *actors That 4#ect 4#ect Gay and Bisexual Bisexual
Brian K 'rew 76856: 4 Review of Gay Men 4nd ,ubstance 4buse% 4 Basic Guide for 4ddicts and Those ?ho
