Demarginalizing the marginalized in substance abuse treatment: Stories of homeless, active substance users in an urban harm reduction based drop-in center

Abstract

This article reports stories of demarginalization in treatment as told by participants of a nonabstinence-based treatment program based on a harm reduction model targeting homeless active users. The stories told are ones where drug users–marginalized due to their drug and/or alcohol use–experienced the treatment setting in a destigmatizing, normalizing, humanizing and nonjudgmental manner. The purpose of this article is to describe the sense of demarginalization that participants experienced and to posit that demarginalization is a critical component in engaging “hard-to-reach” populations in substance abuse treatment. It assumes that listening to consumer voices about what is/is not meaningful to them in treatment can reveal much about program uptake or disconnect.

• Harm reduction
• substance abuse treatment
• demarginalization