Modern activism
‘Women with drug and alcohol dependency need specific care’
In our new modern activism column, Sophie Walker, feminist campaigner and author of Five Rules For Rebellion: Let’s Change The World Ourselves, spotlights women fighting for change. This week, she talks to Jo-anne Welsh, 53, CEO of Oasis in Brighton and Hove, which helps women with alcohol and drug dependency. Oasis is the only organisation in England providing women-specific drug and alcohol treatment and Jo-anne is shaking up hierarchies and processes to provide direct support to minoritised communities most in need of them.
Hi Jo-anne, tell us a bit about yourself.
I’m from Rotherham and trained as a nurse over 30 years ago. Soon after qualifying I worked with people who had HIV or AIDS in the days before effective treatment. I was always drawn to working with communities that were stigmatised.
How did you make the journey from working as an HIV nurse into campaigning?
After working at a hospice in Brighton, I moved on to the Royal College of Nursing, where I worked on campaigns focused around health and safety for nurses, race equality and bullying in the workplace. I learned about campaigning and lobbying and what gets taken forward for action. After that I did other jobs related to modernising the NHS. I’ve worked at Oasis for more than 12 years now.
What barriers are you trying to counteract?
Women are in the minority when it comes to people who access publicly-funded drug and alcohol treatment. They’re outnumbered by men three to one. Most have experienced sexual or domestic violence and can find their vulnerability increased in a mixed-gender treatment environment. Women who want to discuss these experiences sit better in a women-only space, in a service that is led and delivered by women. Women who use drugs and alcohol are also more stigmatised than men – women are expected to be ‘nice’, caring people and if you’ve been seen to put drugs before caring for your children, or have a criminal record, you bump hard into ideas of what women ‘should’ be. At Oasis we focus a lot on women’s roles as mothers and provide a crèche, because childcare is another barrier to accessing treatment. And we talk about women who have recovered, who normally become invisible.
How can Grazia readers support you?
People can donate money and explore our website (oasisproject.org.uk) for other ways to support us. In terms of advocating, people can challenge the negative and stigmatising language they hear about women who use drugs and alcohol and ask questions about how the needs of women in their communities with these problems are being met. Because there is really nothing in place that takes into account that they might have different needs to men.
What have you found both hardest and most positive about the work you’ve done?
I find it difficult to deal with the limits of my influence – drug treatment services have experienced financial cuts over the last 10 years. It’s not an area that gleans much sympathy. It’s also hard when women lose their children as a result of their dependency. But recovery is possible. A bad start in life doesn’t need to mean a bad end. It’s an honour to walk alongside people as they make positive changes in their life.