Mothers Who Use Opioids: An International Comparative Analysis of Policy and Practice in the UK and US Socioeconomic Landscape

This is a presentation of an analysis of data collected in the Relations Study in the UK and the Mothers Study in the US with the goal to provide international perspectives on policy and practice for future guidance in clinical sociology. Both studies collected ethnographic observation data in community and clinical settings, and qualitative interviews from mothers who used opioids, including prescription pain medications, heroin, and opioid medication treatment. The number of parents using opioids has been increasing, exposing a critical lack of treatment facilities for mothers and pregnant women with opioid use dependence. Mothers of young children who use drugs may be met with judgmental attitudes and discriminatory treatment in their encounters with social services and health providers. Parents who use drugs are an intensely governed population and subject to competing policy agendas and coercive practices. There is a gap in understanding how increased surveillance affects utilization of required healthcare and desired outcomes. To understand and respond to parental opioid use, research must account for the wider social ecology within which families are embedded. The Relations Study was guided by an analytic framework drawing attention to an underlying question of how people are governed and how governing shapes peoples’ lives. The Mothers Study was guided by a syndemics framework to focus on the socio-ecological aspects of the women's everyday reality. This combined analysis will provide comparative findings on the extent to which different governing systems affect mothers who use opioids and the outcomes for their families. The UK study was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); the US study was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). The analytical collaboration was funded by the Fulbright-Scotland Distinguished Scholar Award at the University of Edinburgh, hosted at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities.