Trade-offs in substitution treatment: a qualitative study of an opioid substitution therapy clinic as an enabling and a risk-environment

Josefine Skou Jakobsen, Malene Lindgaard Kloster, Louise Christensen, Katrine Schepelern Johansen, Nanna Kappel, Mette Kronbæk, Kristian Relsted Fahnøe, Esben Houborg

Research output: Contribution to journalJournal articleResearchpeer-review

Abstract

This article presents results from a study of clients’ experiences of attending an opioid substitution treatment clinic in Copenhagen, Denmark. The study is part of a research project about the everyday lives of marginalized people who use drugs in Copenhagen, their risk environments, and their access to formal and informal resources. Thirty-eight clients participated in structured interviews, covering topics concerning drug use, income, housing, social relations, violence, and use of health and social services. A risk environment/enabling environment framework was developed to analyze the data. The study highlights the importance of including the drug scene that surrounds the clinic to understand the clinic as both an enabling, constraining, and risky environment affecting the clients’ everyday lives, their safety, health, and well-being. The study shows that the clinic gives the clients access to different material, social and affective resources, but that access to resources often involves different trade-offs. For the clients, such trade-offs include balancing enabling and risky aspects of interaction with other clients or accepting constraints to get access to substitution medicine. Some clients accept such trade-offs, others do not and choose to find other ways to get resources, exposing themselves to potential harm. By paying particular attention to these trade-offs, this study provides a nuanced picture of the clinic’s dual role in both being a source of stability and a place that many clients associate with feeling worried and insecure.

Original languageEnglish
JournalContemporary Drug Problems
Volume49
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)64-83
Number of pages20
ISSN0091-4509
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2022

Keywords

  • social work and social conditions
  • illicit drug use
  • risk
  • resources
  • opioid substitution therapy

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