Researching with women in recovery : how midlife women with alcohol use disorder maintain quality abstinent recovery and wellbeing

Abstract

How midlife women with alcohol use disorders maintain quality abstinent recovery: a transdisciplinary and participatory study to explore women's health needs when establishing and sustaining recovery. This Participatory Action Research (PAR) explored how alcohol dependent midlife women in Australia maintain abstinent recovery. The aim was to identify, based on the women's lived experiences, critical recovery change processes, and to recommend women-oriented ways to improve healthcare services, including professional training, to meet women's needs for long-term recovery and wellbeing. The study's primary objectives were to: 1. identify, with women in recovery and practitioners (professionals providing addiction healthcare), the lived experiences and processes that enable women with AUDs to have an enriching experience of recovery; 2. explore the barriers for the 'whole-person' care required by midlife women to become and remain abstinent, well, and socially effective; provide evidence-based actionable recommendations and necessary tools for health providers to improve midlife women's 'recovery care and development'; 4. prioritise the particular aspects of 'recovery support' needed by midlife women (e.g. to address trauma and chronic pain) to sustain abstinence and personal wellbeing; and 5. to increase access by practitioners, media professionals, tertiary educators, family and friends to the best currently available female-focused, evidence-based AUDs information. The primary participants of Researching with Women in Recovery (RWR) comprised 246 midlife women in abstinent recovery (with 2 to 31 years of abstinence) and 106 practitioners (with recognised qualifications in addiction care) who were working with AUDs clients. By the completion of the six Action Cycles, there were 805 participants who had been recruited using the purposive and snowball recruitment strategy. I also observed (over seven years) 18 'communities of practice' (groups involved with drug and alcohol services), and 12 alcohol and drug recovery 'mutual-support groups', such as AA (n = 110 observations). This research (through the RWR Transactive Methodology) drew upon the thoughts, feelings and actions relating to women's alcohol use disorders and abstinence, to increase and add depth to our understanding of the change processes that enable midlife women to sustain recovery and wellbeing. The RWR Transactive Methodology employed four lines of inquiry (Document and Expert Exchange and Action Science along with PAR and Direct and Indirect Observation) and a mixed-methods strategy to explore with the participants' their real-life contextual understandings, multi-level perspectives, and the sociocultural influences informing their ways of recovery and recovery care. With completion of the RWR Meta-study (beginning from Action Cycle 4 and continuing after Action Cycle 6) 970 people had volunteered and contributed to RWR. The RWR conclusions and evidence-based recommendations emphasise how improvement for women with AUDs can be made through policy development, public and media psycho-education, updating tertiary education teaching curricula and professional leadership, to apply optimal 'abstinent recovery care and development-based interventions for women' in the Australian health and medical care systems. The RWR study has provided the best proactive practice for midlife women's complex health needs to enable a growing (previously un-recognised) population to establish and maintain recovery and wellbeing over their lifespan.

Date of Award	2013
Original language	English