Barriers to Substance Abuse Treatment in Rural and Urban Communities: Counselor Perspectives

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to compare rural and urban substance abuse counselors’ perceptions of barriers to providing effective treatment services. Data were collected from 28 substance abuse counselors in Kentucky during four focus group sessions in 2008. Line-by-line coding and memoing were used by two raters on the transcribed data to isolate findings. The results of this study suggest that, though rural and urban counselors encounter similar constraints that hamper successful treatment outcomes, rural counselors are subject to special circumstances within their communities that present unique challenges to treatment efficacy. Novel contributions, implications, and limitations are also discussed.

Keywords :

• treatment
• treatment barriers
• rural
• qualitative
• counselors
• urban

THE AUTHORS

Erin Pullen, M.A., is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Kentucky and a project director at the Center on Drug and Alcohol Research. Her main research interests are health disparities, health service utilization, social networks, and substance use and misuse.

Carrie Oser, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Sociology Department, with a joint appointment in the Department of Behavioral Science and Center on Drug and Alcohol Research at the University of Kentucky. Her research interests include health services, health disparities, HIV risk behaviors/interventions, as well as substance abuse among rural, African American, and/or criminal justice populations. Dr. Oser has received several grants from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) to examine these research interests and has published findings in a variety of peer-reviewed journals.