ALCOHOL ABUSE RECOVERY
THROUGH THE LENS OF MANITOBAN
FIRST NATIONS AND ABORIGINAL
WOMEN: A QUALITATIVE STUDY
Karen Doty-Sweetnam
Department of Psychiatric Nursing
Faculty of Health Studies
Brandon University
QUALITATIVE STUDY:
Explored the experiences of First
Nations and Aboriginal women during
their journey of recovery from alcohol
abuse.
Seven women participated in
individual, tape-recorded interviews,
during which they described their
experiences, yielding written protocols
that were thematically analyzed.
Adequacy of sample size in
qualitative research is relative, a
matter of judging a sample neither
small nor large per se, but too
small or too large for the intended
purposes of sampling and for the
intended qualitative product.
Sandelowski (1995)
WHY?
! There
is a higher rate of drug and alcohol abuse
among Aboriginal people of Canada than the
general population. McCormick (2000):
It is also reported that alcohol-related deaths
among First Nations people are six times higher
compared to the general population. Tremblay (2009)
! 
! Specific
data pertaining to the rate of alcohol
abuse and First Nations and Aboriginal women is
unavailable.
Indigenous peoples have been
curiously absent from the Canadian
recovery scene. Reasons for this
nonparticipation may be traced to the
racism and whiteness that continues
in mental health but might there also
be a link to the limitations of recovery,
including its specific focus on mental
health?
Lavallee and Poole (1995)
However, the majority of
researchers who study
alcohol use among the
native people of North
America have devoted
little attention to how or
why they give up
drinking…
Instead, as in the
anthropology of alcohol
more generally, the
predominate impulse
has been to explain
why Indian people
drink as they do.
Spicer (2001)
The purpose of this study was
threefold:
•  to afford co-researchers with an
opportunity to share their journey
and experience of recovery,
•  to provide preliminary
information regarding the
recovery strategies utilized by the
co-researchers,
•  to prompt future research in the
area of recovery among First
Nations and Aboriginal women.
Little is known about the psychological
protective factors of resilience and selfdifferentiation, which women may or
may not bring to treatment and
recovery process. Sutherland, Cook, Stetina, and
Hernandez (2009)
•  These authors also report that
women who enter treatment for
substance abuse have different needs
than men…
Women are especially
reluctant to seek
treatment for alcohol
problems.
Greenfield (2007)
Barriers:
1. opposition and the lack of
support from family and
friends,
2. elevated unemployment,
3. increased economic
barriers,
4. familial responsibilities,
5. stigma and
6. societal disapproval.
Grosso et al., (2013)
Results from this study
revealed seven
predominant themes:
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guilt and shame
unresolved core issues
resilience
tenacity
recovery process
traditional spirituality
family and friends
1. GUILT AND SHAME:
“And I didn’t want to be sober because
I was ashamed of what I was doing,
and I didn’t want anybody to know.
The more I drank then, I just didn’t
care. But then if I tried sobering up all
the shame and guilt came up. But then
I just – I didn’t like that feeling so I
just kept drinking.”
2. UNRESOLVED CORE ISSUES:
“But the survivors from the fifties and
sixties and the seventies are now just
getting their compensation. And they
are now just getting this opportunity to
look at what happened to them. For a
lot of them they are relapsing into
alcohol because they don’t know what
else to do.”
RESILIENCE:
“Women are thoughtful beings. They
were strong leaders in the community,
and the Europeans that introduced the
white way and the men became chiefs.
That is not the natural order. The
order is the grandmothers were
supposed to be the ones that lead. They
carried life, they carry the teachings.”
TENACITY:
“Once I made my decision I went for it.
There’s no turning back. I’m a stubborn
person to begin with. Alright so there wasn’t
any way I was going to turn back. I was
going to give it all I had to see if it worked.
Because I decided that I wasn’t going to
drink anymore and do drugs anymore, that
I was going to pursue this new lifestyle – I
was determined.”
RECOVERY PROCESS:
“But what happened was the night before I
was lying in bed and I prayed and I said, “I
really don’t know what I want to do. Do I
want to go drinking with my friends, or do I
want to go out and learn some more about
this cultural stuff. I really don’t know. And I
left it with God, I said you know where I
should go. And I went to the cultural retreat.
And that was my first day of sobriety.”
FAMILY AND FRIENDS:
“I quit drinking, then my father quit.
And I don't know it seems like all my
brothers quit because they were
following. I don't know what it was,
like it is almost like a wave. And,
then my cousin quit...and I never said
to them stop drinking...I was just an
example I guess.”
TRADITIONAL/SPIRITUAL
“But looking back my mom had all
this, but it was so subtle. But it wasn’t
in the open. She was traditional and
spiritual but I didn’t really know it
because that was the time when
things were hidden from people
because you’d get arrested and put into
jail if you were practicing it…”
REFERENCES
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Greenfield, S., Brooks, A., Gordon, S., Green, C., Kropp, F., McHugh, R., Lincoln, M., Hien, D., &
Miele, G. (2007). Substance abuse treatment entry, retention, and outcome in women: A review.
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 86(1), 1-21.Grosso, J., Epstein, E., McCrady, B., Gaba, A., Cook, S.
Backer-Fulghum, M., & Graff, F. (2013). Women’s motivators for seeking treatment for alcohol use
disorders. Addictive Behaviors, 38, 2236-2245.
Lavallee, L., & Poole, J. (2010). Beyond recovery: Colonialism, health and healing for Indigenous
People in Canada. International Journal of Mental Health Addiction, 8, 271-281.
McCormick, R. (2000). Aboriginal traditions in the treatment of substance abuse. Canadian
Journal of Counselling, 34(1), 25-32.
Sandelowski, M. (1995). Sample size in qualitative research. Research in Nursing and Health, 18,
179-183.
Spicer, P. Culture and the restoration of self among former American Indian drinkers. Social
Science & Medicine, 53, 227-240.
Sutherland, J., Cook, L., Stetina, P., & Hernandez, C. (2009). Women in substance abuse recovery.
Measures of resilience and self-determination. Western Journal of Nursing Research, 31(7),
905-922.
Tremblay, P. (2009). Getting it right: Using population specific, community-based research to
advance the health and well-being of First Nations, Inuit and Metis in Canada. National
Aboriginal Health Organization.
https://youtu.be/1QRb8wA2iHs
Dr. Colleen Anne Dell, University of
Saskatchewan and Canadian Centre on
Substance Abuse
Used with permission of Microsoft.