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Staff regard towards working with substance users: a European multi-centre study

Staff regard towards working with substance users: a European multi-centre study

Gilchrist, Gail, Moskalewicz, Jacek, Slezakova, Silvia, Okruhlica, Lubomir, Torrens, Marta, Vajd, Rajko and Baldacchino, Alex (2011) Staff regard towards working with substance users: a European multi-centre study. Addiction, 106 (6). pp. 1114-1125. ISSN 0965-2140 (Print), 1360-0443 (Online) (doi:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1360-0443.2011.03407.x)

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Abstract

Aims: To compare regard for working with different patient groups (including substance users) among different professional groups in different health-care settings in eight European countries.
Design: A multi-centre, cross-sectional comparative study.
Setting: Primary care, general psychiatry and specialist addiciton services in Bulgaria, Greece, Italy, Poland, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
Participants: A multi-disciplinary convenience sample of 866 professionals (physicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, nurses and social workers) from 253 services.
Measurements: The Medical Condition Regard Scale measured regard for working with different patient groups. Multi-factor between-subjects analysis of variance determined the factors associated with regard for each condition by country and all countries.
Findings: Regard for working with alcohol (mean score alcohol: 45.35, 95% CI 44.76, 45.95) and drug users (mean score drugs: 43.67, 95% CI 42.98, 44.36) was consistently lower than for other patient groups (mean score diabetes: 50.19, 95% CI 49.71, 50.66; mean score depression: 51.34, 95% CI 50.89, 51.79) across all countries participating in the study, particularly among staff from primary care compared to general psychiatry or specialist addiction services (P < 0.001). After controlling for sex of staff, profession and duration of time working in profession, treatment entry point and country remained the only statistically significant variables associated with regard for working with alcohol and drug users.
Conclusions: Health professionals appear to ascribe lower status to working with substance users than helping other patient groups, particularly in primary care; the effect is larger in some countries than others.

Item Type: Article
Additional Information: [1] Article published online: 28 APR 2011. [2] Issue published online: 12 MAY 2011. [3] Published in print: June 2011. [4] Published as: Addiction, (2011), Vol. 106, (6), pp. 1114–1125. [4] Addiction is the journal of the Society for the Study of Addiction.
Uncontrolled Keywords: alcohol users, cross-sectional study, drug users, Europe, general psychiatry, Medical Condition Regard Scale, primary care, specialist addiction services, staff attitudes
Subjects: R Medicine > RC Internal medicine
Pre-2014 Departments: School of Health & Social Care
School of Health & Social Care > Department of Health Development
Related URLs:
Last Modified: 14 Oct 2016 09:17
URI: http://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/6641

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