WITH data indicating that Jamaican women are choosing to battle addictions silently, health professionals are calling for services tailored to meet the unique needs of females.

The women often cite exclusion from treatment services as the reason they do not seek help, but the health professional believe fear of stigma is also a major factor.

The data, contained in the 2023 Jamaica Drug Prevalence Statistics released by the Ministry of Health on Monday, revealed “clear indications of increases in substance use over the past seven years” and said more women cited the absence of treatment programmes for females as their reason for not seeking help to treat their addictions.

“An estimated 60,000 persons reported that they needed treatment; it’s notable that there were more males than females that needed this service. But, of the amount who said they had not accessed treatment, we sought to determine the reasons and the highest reason that was outlined was ‘not knowing where to get treatment’,” Uki Atkinson, senior director of the Research, Programme Development and Monitoring and Evaluation Branch at National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA), told the Jamaica Observer Tuesday.

“An overall 36 per cent said they didn’t know where to get treatment, but when you compared it by gender, 41 per cent of females compared to 34 per cent of males didn’t know where to go for treatment,” she said.

Atkinson noted that some of the other reasons included not being able to afford treatment. Disaggregated by gender, it was found that 27 per cent of females gave this as a reason, compared to nine per cent males.

“Another one was no transportation or it was too far away, and this was 12 per cent of the females compared to less than one per cent of the males. Another one was there was no space in the treatment programme and this was not attributed by men at all, none of the men said this, but 10 per cent of the women did. Another one was treatment might cause neighbours to have a negative opinion of them, this was four per cent of the women compared to one per cent of the men,” Atkinson said in outlining a clear pattern.

She said health officials are paying attention to what the data is intimating.

“We know from the literature that access to treatment for women, the type of services that exists for women, there are unique considerations that need to be given for women who use substances in a problematic way compared to services for men because there is a greater stigma attached to women who are using,” Atkinson said.

“There is greater consideration of who is going to deal with the children, how are people going to view me and treat me as a woman, and so these are some of the contextual and cultural barriers that we need to address,” Atkinson added.

She told the Observer that the NCDA is collaborating with partners from the European Cooperation Programme as well as the Inter-American Drug Abuse Control Commission to look at this issue in more depth.

“It is recognised as an issue we need to address and it is something that we have on our radar. This data is confirming that it is something that warrants attention,” she said.

Meanwhile, Nahtalia Nelson, psychologist in the Substance Use Disorder Unit, which is part of the Prevention, Public and Treatment Branch of the NCDA, told the Observer that “many women do choose to fight alone” because of stigma, which she describes as “a major factor”.

According to Nelson, the reasons driving Jamaican women to become addicted to substances are varied.

“I would say that for many it’s coping with stress or trauma that’s a big one. I would want to say that many of our people have been through some significant trauma whether currently or something that has happened in their past or their youth, or they are living in a continued trauma and persons want to cope,” she stated, noting other factors such as the economic realities and navigating relationships.

“So coping for many persons is one of the reasons, and also there might be underlying mental health issue. So, for example, if the person has a mood disorder, like depression or anxiety, they might also be using the substance to self-medicate, to cope, to get some kind of relief, detachment, or to be able to feel something. Many do choose to fight alone and stigma is a major factor,” added Nelson.

“What you will find is that, women not coming forward is not peculiar to Jamaica and it’s not peculiar to the region, or internationally. What the data will show is that so far, there are more male users of substances, but in terms of women, a male chain-smoker in Jamaica will be treated differently from a female chain-smoker,” she said.

Nelson said coming forward for a woman might mean for them exposing what is taking place.

“So there is a lot of societal shame that would have been imposed and that sense of guilt, so that is one thing you don’t want anybody to know,” she said, adding that stigma is more towards women, especially if they are caregivers or mothers.

In pointing out that some of the treatment methods being used for women vary from what is used for men, Nelson said generally there is that need for rehabilitative spaces that are more affordable.

In the meantime, the psychologist said there is need for other major shifts in how addiction is dealt with and to prevent women from treating the issue “as their dirty little secret”.

“Another significant barrier [to seeking help] is work, because if the individual is employed I don’t think there is provision for time off to deal with it. So the question of continued employment for a person having a substance abuse issue is not the same as a person who needs to do a surgery, et cetera, so we have some ways to go,” she pointed out.

“Another thing can also be the cost, but we will see as we go forward what will happen in terms of improving affordability to everyone and women in particular,” added Nelson.

November is National Drug Awareness Month and Jamaica is celebrating under the theme ‘Know the Facts: Now Let’s Act’.