‘Meeting People Where They’re At’: Experiences of Family Physicians Engaging Women Who Use Illicit Drugs

The Article in Brief

'Meeting People Where They�re At': Experiences of Family Physicians Engaging Women Who Use Illicit Drugs

Susan Woolhouse , and colleagues

Background This study explores family physicians' experiences of providing care to women using illicit drugs in order to better understand how to engage the women in the patient-physician relationship.

What This Study Found Exploring 10 family physicians� experiences, researchers identified a two-phase process of relationship development. First is an initial engagement phase that attempts to build relationships from a tenuous starting point of patients� difficult past experiences. This phase requires trust and presence and can lead to a maintenance phase, which requires continuity and finding common ground.

Implications

• Improving physicians� ability to engage women who use illicit drugs in the patient-physician relationship has implications for improving the women's overall health.
• Strong patient-physician relationships, the authors assert, are especially important for marginalized women, such as those who use illicit drugs.