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A Structural Barrier to Healthcare: Stigma of Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders Among Health Care Workers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 September 2022

İ.G. Yilmaz-Karaman ,
T. Gündüz  and
G. Güleç
İ.G. Yilmaz-Karaman*
Affiliation:
Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Faculty of Medicine, Psychiatry Department, Eskişehir, Turkey
T. Gündüz
Affiliation:
Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Faculty of Medicine, Psychiatry, Eskişehir, Turkey
G. Güleç
Affiliation:
Eskişehir Osmangazi University, Faculty of Medicine, Psychiatry, Eskişehir, Turkey
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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Introduction

Individuals with substance use disorders are considered unpredictable and violent by the public. Besides, health care workers (HCW) may have negative attitudes towards them, despite their knowledge about addiction; which is related to lower quality of care. In Turkey, addiction service users are predominantly male, over ninety percent; while women make up a large percentage of psychiatrists.

Objectives

The present study aims to evaluate if the HCWs level of stigma towards individuals with substance use disorder changes due to gender and mental health sector experience of the HCWs.

Methods

Within an online survey, participant HCWs answered Attitudes Towards Treatment of Substance Use Disorders Scale, Substance Addiction Stigmatization Scale, Alcohol Addiction Stigmatization Scale; in addition to sociodemographic questions.

Results

Three hundred ninety-eight HCWs were included in the analyses. 22.7% of them (n=91) were recruited in mental health sector. Mental health care workers had lower levels of stigma towards individuals with alcohol use disorders (14.78 vs 16.21, p=0.048) and substance use disorders (14.21 vs 20.09, p<0.001) and, lower levels of stigma towards addiction treatments (20.89 vs 23.93, p=0.007). Among mental health care workers, women scored higher numbers of stigmatization towards alcohol use disorder and addiction treatments (16.26 vs 12.98, p=0.003; 23.84 vs 17.29, p<0.001). On the other hand, women and men in other HCWs groups did not differ from each other in terms of stigmatization measurements (See Figure 1)

Conclusions

The gender of mental health care workers may be related to stigmatization towards addictive disorders. Future research should evaluate underlying factors.

Disclosure

No significant relationships.

Keywords

substance use disorderAlcohol use disorderstigmaAddiction
Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 65 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 30th European Congress of Psychiatry , June 2022 , pp. S826 - S827
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the European Psychiatric Association
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