Women's views on barriers and facilitators for seeking alcohol and drug treatment in Belgium.

Aims: Although treatment barriers are different for men and women, research is dominated by males' and practitioners' perspectives rather than women's voices. The purpose of this study in Belgium was to identify and obtain a better understanding of the barriers and facilitators for seeking treatment as experienced by substance (ab)using women themselves. Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with 60 female substance users who utilise(d) outpatient and/or residential treatment services. A content analysis was performed on women's personal accounts of previous treatment experiences as well as their experiences with services along the continuum of care, resulting in practical implications for the organisation of services. Results: Female substance users experience various overlapping - and at times competing - barriers and facilitators when seeking treatment and utilising services. For most women, the threat of losing custody of their children is an essential barrier to treatment, whereas for a significant part of the participants it serves as a motivation to seek help. Also, women report social stigma in private as well as professional contexts as a barrier to treatment. Women further ask for a holistic approach to treatment, which stimulates the healing process of body, mind and spirit, and emphasise the importance of feeling safe in treatment. Participants suggested several changes that could encourage treatment utilisation. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrate the need for a gender-sensitive approach within alcohol and drug services that meets the needs of female substance users, as well as gender-sensitivity within prevention and awareness-raising campaigns, reducing the stigma and facilitating knowledge and awareness among women and society.

Informal social support in contexts of diversity: shaping the relationship between the public and the private sphere.

This paper aims to re-examine the social dimension of social support as the shared responsibility of social work and families in shaping social support rather than pressuring parents' individual responsibilities, as this has been a significantly under-theorised issue in social work research. In our qualitative study, we discuss parents' experiences of informal social support in Centres for Children and Parents (CCP) in two cities in Belgium. During 2012, six discussion groups were held with 29 mothers, three fathers and one nanny who visited one of the CCP included in the project. A broad topic list was used, investigating parents' first visit and motivations to return; their encounters with other children, parents and the professionals; and the actual role of the professional. Data were interpreted repeatedly using qualitative content analysis. The CCP focus on engaging with a wide diversity of parents of young children, not framed as 'at risk', reflecting the contemporary contexts of diversity in which these practices unfold. Our research shows that departing from an anti-essentialist approach to diversity and heterogeneity may be productive for the promotion of both social support and social cohesion as it captures social issues such as diverse and changing norms and values, diverse and changing family compositions, lifestyles and situations, and diverse and changing biographical, socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds of children and parents. As the CCP offer the opportunity of a confrontation between private issues and public concerns, social encounters between a diverse mix of families are experienced as supportive. While embracing parents' perspectives regarding equity, reciprocity, agency and social cohesion, it becomes clear that these processes of interaction require facilitation by a specific professional. In this article, we attempt to unravel and discuss the possible role(s) of social work in generating informal social support.

Untangling the nonrecyclable citizen: a critical reconceptualization of responsibility in recovery.

Over the last decades, international research, policy, and practice in the field of mental health care and a complementary variety of social work and social service delivery methods have been focused on recovery as a dominant concept. Emphasizing the service user's responsibility appears to be a central component in the empowering process of recovery. Using a critical disability studies perspective, we aimed to untangle the relationship between the individual citizen with mental health problems and the society in which the recovery discourse operates in Belgium. In this article we explore the social dynamics in the unique life story of Jimmy Sax and analyze a diversity of discourses and practices that turned him into a nonrecyclable citizen. While exploring the different modes through which Jimmy's subjectivity was transformed throughout the course of his life, we expose the convoluted nature of the recovery paradigm, which leads to a reconceptualization of the notion of responsibility in recovery.

Resistance and resilience in a life full of professionals and labels: narrative snapshots of Chris.

In this article, the authors relate the life of Chris through narrative snapshots. Chris asked the authors to tell her story. They decided that it could be used to provide an insight into the different ways people with labels are confronted with professional practices and rituals. Although Chris lived a "tough life," her story is full of resilience and resistance. Chris will be kept in the authors' memory as a strong woman, a teacher, and a friend.

Rediscovering recovery: reconceptualizing underlying assumptions of citizenship and interrelated notions of care and support.

Over the last few decades, research, policy, and practice in the field of mental health care and a complementary variety of social work and social service delivery have internationally concentrated on recovery as a promising concept. In this paper, a conceptual distinction is made between an individual approach and a social approach to recovery, and underlying assumptions of citizenship and interrelated notions and features of care and support are identified. It is argued that the conditionality of the individual approach to recovery refers to a conceptualization of citizenship as normative, based on the existence of a norm that operates in every domain of our society. We argue that these assumptions place a burden of self-governance on citizens with mental health problems and risk producing people with mental health problems as nonrecyclable citizens. The social approach to recovery embraces a different conceptualization of citizenship as relational and inclusive and embodies the myriad ways in which the belonging of people with mental health problems can be constructed in practice. As such, we hope to enable social services and professionals in the field to balance their role in the provision of care and support to service users with mental health problems.

Narrative in a nutshell: sharing hopes, fears, and dreams with self-advocates.

The grand narrative of modernism is a dominating story with profound sociopolitical implications in the lives of people with the label of intellectual disabilities. In this article, we throw light on the life stories and interpretive theories of self-advocates, which usually remain hidden between the story-lines of life. Professionals in the field are being pressed to address self-advocates' existential challenges and move us, as theoretical allies, towards deeper conversations about disability theory. Here, we search for a useful theoretical framework to support the circulation of their wisdom and knowledge. We experiment with poststructuralist and feminist pointers and, in particular, some of the notions of Deleuze and Guattari's (1987) rhizome.

Partnership working between university researchers and self-advocacy organizations: 'A way forward for inclusion?'in England and 'Fine feathers make a fine bird'in Flanders.

This article gives accounts of differing experiences of self-advocate partnerships in research with universities in England and Flanders. In England the partnership grew up within a local People First group built upon a personal working relationship with one support person. It is focused almost exclusively on empirical research and, because it is aimed at influencing policy and practice, questions of funding and control are to the fore. In Flanders the partnership is closely linked with the development of a national movement of self-advocates in which the university was a close ally. Research is important in both contexts but in Flanders the university is more clearly identified with the wider movement. Partnerships have their ups and downs but in both countries researchers with the label 'learning difficulties' wish to set their own agendas and place great importance on trust in their work with their support worker (England) or ally (Flanders).