Toward an Understanding of Russian Speaking Heroin Addicts and Drug Treatment Services in Israel

Abstract

This pa per de scribes the find ings from a pur pos ive sample of 152 male and fe male Rus sian-speak ing drug ad diets who im migrated to Is rael dur ing the last ten years. Ap prox i mately one-third of the co hort was not Jew ish, in clud ing 47 per cent of the women. Forty-one per cent of the subjects re ported be ing phys i cally abused and 25 per cent of the women, com pared to 5 per cent of the men, re ported be ing sex u ally abused as a child. Al co hoi abuse was found to be dif fer ent among the par ents of male and fe male ad diets: 46% of the women com pared to 31% of the men had fa thers who drank ex ces sively; 14% of the women compared to 5% of the men had moth ers who were heavy drink ers. Also, female ad diets were more likely than male ad diets to have a mother who used il licit drugs. Treat ment re lated is sues are dis cussed along with the need for specialized, culturally sen si tiveser vice pro vision.

Key Words:

• Her oin ad diets
• Rus sian-speak ing im mi grants
• im migration
• drug ad die tion