Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
“We’re doing what we can”: Diverse voices aligning against substance abuse in Appalachian Kentucky
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Prescription drugs are increasingly associated with overdose deaths, hepatitis C, and HIV in the US, including Appalachian Kentucky. Kentucky policy makers have responded to prescription drug and substance abuse with a number of initiatives that range from curbing access to drugs and criminalizing drug users to providing substance abuse treatment and additional services. Yet beyond simplified program evaluations, there are no studies that examine how these policies are translated into people’s lives. The aim of this presentation is to discuss how state level and local stakeholders, specifically those who work to provide substance abuse treatment and additional services, employees of the criminal justice system, and women in substance abuse treatment, differentially navigate the confines of state and federal drug policies to work against substance abuse in Appalachian Kentucky. These results are based on ethnographic fieldwork, primarily interviews and participant observation, completed from 2012 to 2015 in Kentucky. Key informants, including clinicians, researchers, and program administrators, who work in Appalachian Kentucky as well as women processing through substance abuse treatment in rural Appalachian Kentucky were interviewed. Participant observation was conducted in two rural Appalachian counties and at state meetings of organizations that operate in those counties. Although all study participants were working towards the same goals of decreasing the negative effects of substance abuse in their state, communities, or lives, participants employed numerous methods to attempt to reach these goals that reflect individual histories and experiences as well as how political and socioeconomic conditions constrain actions.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Lesly-Marie Buer, MA, MPH, is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Anthropology and holds a graduate certificate in Gender and Women’s Studies from the University of Kentucky. Her primary research interests include women’s health, substance use, and women’s lived experiences in Appalachia. Her current dissertation research focuses on women’s encounters with substance abuse treatment, state interventions, and gendered inequalities in Central Appalachia.
“We’re doing what we can”: Diverse voices aligning against substance abuse in Appalachian Kentucky
Prescription drugs are increasingly associated with overdose deaths, hepatitis C, and HIV in the US, including Appalachian Kentucky. Kentucky policy makers have responded to prescription drug and substance abuse with a number of initiatives that range from curbing access to drugs and criminalizing drug users to providing substance abuse treatment and additional services. Yet beyond simplified program evaluations, there are no studies that examine how these policies are translated into people’s lives. The aim of this presentation is to discuss how state level and local stakeholders, specifically those who work to provide substance abuse treatment and additional services, employees of the criminal justice system, and women in substance abuse treatment, differentially navigate the confines of state and federal drug policies to work against substance abuse in Appalachian Kentucky. These results are based on ethnographic fieldwork, primarily interviews and participant observation, completed from 2012 to 2015 in Kentucky. Key informants, including clinicians, researchers, and program administrators, who work in Appalachian Kentucky as well as women processing through substance abuse treatment in rural Appalachian Kentucky were interviewed. Participant observation was conducted in two rural Appalachian counties and at state meetings of organizations that operate in those counties. Although all study participants were working towards the same goals of decreasing the negative effects of substance abuse in their state, communities, or lives, participants employed numerous methods to attempt to reach these goals that reflect individual histories and experiences as well as how political and socioeconomic conditions constrain actions.
