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“Feeling on the outside:”
Father exclusion in
maternal harm reduction
services Sydney Weaver
PhD (candidate)University of
British ColumbiaCanada
Fathers’ Prayer , Dallas Poundmaker
Funding acknowledgements
The problem
Mothers’ drug use has been the primary focus of pregnancy/drug use research
Fathers are largely excluded from family-focused addictions research and services
This is problematic because fathers’ absence and drug use affects family health outcomes
Race, class and violence
Gender, race and class are identified factors in father exclusion, particularly for Indigenous fathers (Ball, 2009)
Domestic violence is frequently linked to illicit drug use, providing a rationale for excluding fathers from mothers’ treatment
“I won’t be the kid rotting in jail, the black kid in jail, I won’t be the criminal ... sure I might look the role but I’d rather tell you a joke than take your purse…(Ken).
Yet the dominant view of domestic violence excludes the “social context of colonisation, loss of culture and poverty” (Taylor et al., 2004, p. 72).
Ignoring structural factors implicates fathers oppressed by race and class, inequality
Mixed methods
Quantitative:
Sample of 40 charts of former patients
Correlation analyses conducted using SPSS
Qualitative:
Parents and service providers participated in focus groups; parents were interviewed individually
This pilot study was conducted in Vancouver, Canada with former patients of an innovative harm reduction maternity ward, and their partners
The study explored how father exclusion affects pregnant mothers’ engagement in harm reduction services.
Father and mother engagement
Father involvement in baby care
Mother engagement was positively correlated with father engagement at .54, with a significance level of .05.
Father engagement in services was also highly correlated with father involvement in baby care, at .79 at a .01 level of significance
Quantitative findings
MOTHERS“DO THE WORK”
FATHERS“LEFT OUT”
“PUT IN THE EFFORT”
SERVICE PROVIDERS“EFFORT TO ENGAGE”
Qualitative findings
RECOVERY AND PARENTING: “The list is forever long, it ’s never
ending, so I’m slowly doing it bit by bit…”
MOTHERS:“DO THE WORK”
“WITH HIM:”
Mothers refused health services that did not include partners
Mothers describe partners as a familiar, important support at a difficult time in their lives:
“He was my main support, and I really needed him to be around me, we stayed at the (hotel) right until I went into labour”
“He’s coming here and he’s washing bottles…
and he’s alright with the baby
but he needs to learn more about
how to take care of a baby”
“Help the parents work together”
Fathers described exclusion from parenting and recovery-oriented services: “I think there was one class out of six classes that I could go to and the rest were for her, so it sort of left me not feeling lonely but feeling left out” (Randy).
FATHERS:“LEFT OUT”
“PUT IN THE
EFFORT”“you don’t need someone ... telling you that you’re going to fail when you’re trying to succeed”
Childbirth/children motivate fathers to recovery: “first thing was my kid that got me clean”
Service providers cited a lack of institutional support/resources in their attempts to work with fathers
“It’s almost a barrier to have to work with the father as well”
SERVICE PROVIDERS:“EFFORT TO ENGAGE”
Both mothers and fathers wanted individual counselling
Both also wanted fathers included in parenting and recovery services
Counselling for couples was requested by all participants, to enhance recovery and relationships
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