Substance use coercion refers to the pattern of coercive tactics directed at someone’s drug use in the context of family and domestic violence. This may include introducing and facilitating someone’s dependence on a substance, or exerting control over other aspects of their substance use such as controlling access to drugs and equipment, or using stigma surrounding drug use to isolate the person from supports. Drug using women who experience domestic abuse and substance use coercion face a number of barriers when accessing support, such as a lack of integrated services and worker expertise. This form of coercion and the voices of this vulnerable population have gone largely unacknowledged, and no research had been carried out in Australia on substance use coercion.
This research aimed to identify worker knowledge of the methods perpetrators use to exert power and control through illicit drugs, the barriers to providing services and support to women experiencing the intersections of intimate partner violence and illicit drug use, and what they believe is needed to improve the support drug using women receive. To gather this information a phenomenological approach was taken to obtain the insights that workers in domestic violence refuges and women-only therapeutic communities in the Perth and Peel region of Western Australia have of substance use coercion based on their work and what they have heard from victim-survivors. By adding an Australian perspective to the literature this research hopes to prompt changes in policy and practice, improving the support and understanding available to drug using women.