Barriers to Substance Abuse Treatment in Rural and Urban Communities: Counselor Perspectives

• Published in: Substance use & misuse Vol. 49; no. 7; pp. 891 - 901
• Main Authors: Pullen, Erin, Oser, Carrie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Informa Healthcare 01.06.2014; Taylor & Francis; Taylor & Francis Ltd
• Subjects: Attitude of Health Personnel; Case Management; Clinical outcomes; Coding; Communication Barriers; Constraints; Cooperative Behavior; Counseling; counselors; Data collection; Drug abuse; Efficacy; Female; Financial Support; Focus Groups; Health Services Accessibility; Humans; Kentucky; Language; Male; Perceptions; qualitative; Qualitative Research; rural; Rural Areas; Rural Communities; Rural Population; Substance Abuse; Substance abuse treatment; Substance-Related Disorders - rehabilitation; Transportation; Treatment; treatment barriers; Treatment Outcomes; urban; Urban areas; Urban Population; Kentucky; United States > US
• ISSN: 1082-6084; 1532-2491; 1532-2491
• DOI: 10.3109/10826084.2014.891615

The purpose of this study is to compare rural and urban substance abuse counselors' perceptions of barriers to providing effective treatment services. Data were collected from 28 substance abuse counselors in Kentucky during four focus group sessions in 2008. Line-by-line coding and memoing were used by two raters on the transcribed data to isolate findings. The results of this study suggest that, though rural and urban counselors encounter similar constraints that hamper successful treatment outcomes, rural counselors are subject to special circumstances within their communities that present unique challenges to treatment efficacy. Novel contributions, implications, and limitations are also discussed.