‘Researching a Hard-To- Access and Vulnerable Population: Some Considerations on Researching Drug and Alcohol-Using Mothers’

Research indicates that the number of women using drugs, including alcohol, is increasing nationally, particularly among women of childbearing age. Nevertheless it is still largely men who contact drug or alcohol agencies for help, while women with children are particularly reluctant to access services and tend to remain a hidden population. Thus learning more about the lives of substance-using mothers is an important area of concern, pragmatically in terms of developing effective social policy which addresses their and their families’ needs, and sociologically in terms of studying a little-known and vulnerable population. This article discusses the conduct of a project set up to address this gap in knowledge and investigate the everyday lives and experiences of a sample of substance-using mothers in the mid-1990s. Accessing this population proved very difficult because of such factors as the women's involvement in illegal activities, lack of stable housing, and the stigma of being a mother with a substance-use problem. Several strategies to overcome these problems were tried, of which the most successful was relying on drug and alcohol workers as gate-keepers to assist in locating and recruiting volunteers for interview. Because it was so central to the success of the project, as the research progressed the role of the drug-worker became itself a focus for analysis. Having discussed aspects of the researcher/respondent relationship, therefore, the article focuses on the drug-worker/client relationship, and concludes by suggesting that drug-workers are typically required to act in both a counsellor and an authoritarian role, which appears from the research to lead at times to a problematic relationship with clients. The article ends by questioning whether the nature of the drug-worker/client relationship and the drug-worker's status as gate-keeper may at times in itself contribute to the research inaccessibility of this vulnerable population.