Service Needs of Pregnant Substance Abuse Women Seeking Residential Drug Treatment in Hong Kong: a Practice-Based Research

This study aims at exploring the sociodemographic characteristics, service needs, reasons, and timing of pregnant substance abuse women seeking residential drug treatment in Hong Kong. The sample includes nine pregnant substance abuse women who were admitted to the Sister Aquinas Memorial Women’s Treatment Centre of the Society for the Aid and Rehabilitation of Drug Abusers from September 2016 to August 2017. Content analysis on service records was used to identify themes and patterns of service needs, followed by focus group discussions from four experienced social workers. The study reveals that pregnant substance abuse women are usually from complicated social backgrounds. The findings imply the need of designing, implementing, and advocating an integrative service model to meet the multiple needs of pregnant substance abuse women and the importance of establishing closed linkage with medical and social service units in the community to facilitate early intervention.