Looking Out from the Inside: Incarcerated Women's Perceived Barriers to Treatment of Substance Use

Abstract

Using the Allen Barriers to Treatment Instrument (ABTI), 299 women incarcerated in a local jail were asked about the barriers they believed they would face in seeking treatment after their release. The top reported barriers were the inability to pay for treatment, the lack of health insurance, and long waiting lists for publicly funded care. An exploratory factor analysis was used to categorize the ABTI barriers into seven factors these women believed would stand in their way: Program Characteristics, Non-Gender Specific Programming, Treatment Site Access, Financial Access, Personal Beliefs About Use & Recovery, Community & Social Environment, and Children & Work Obligations.

KEYWORDS:

• ABTI
• barriers
• jails
• substance use
• women

Notes

Note. ABTI = Allen Barriers to Treatment Instrument. Items scored using a 4-point Likert-type scale (1 = not at all; 4 = a lot).

Notes. Factor names: 1 = Program Characteristics; 2 = Nongender-Specific Programming; 3 = Treatment Site Access; 4 = Financial Access; 5 = Personal Beliefs About Use and Recovery; 6 = Community and Social Environment; 7 = Children and Work Obligations.

*p ≤ .05. **p ≤ .01. ***p ≤ .001.