Vulnerability and involvement in drug use and ... - Sex Work Europe

or drug users and were there f o re sufficiently in touch with these services to hear about our study.
A further two ‘non-service users’ were re c ruited via a churc h - run service for ‘needy people’.
F rom their re p o rts, it appears that the remaining ten participants had not been in contact with any
s e rvice where their drug use or sex work would have been automatically acknowledged in the six
months before interv i e w. It was clear from some of these participants that they specifically
avoided specialist services for this very reason. They simply did not want to discuss their sex work
or drug use with service providers. Some distrusted services or feared having these details
re c o rded in case notes about them. Others dissociated themselves from the majority using cert a i n
s e rvices and felt these services were there f o re ‘not for them’. Seven of these participants had
nonetheless had a sexual health check within the last six months. This pro p o rtion is roughly the
same as that re p o rted below for participants using services for drug users and/or sex workers.
Two of the ten ‘not in touch with services’ participants were women working outdoors. They
w e re aged 21 and 24. The remaining eight were men. Their ages ranged from 18 to 25.
One worked outdoors or contacted clients in pubs. Another worked in a flat. The re m a i n i n g
six were independent entre p reneurs contacting clients via the internet or press adverts. Seven
of these ten participants shared another distinguishing characteristic that was apparent fro m
depth interviews. These were highly articulate individuals. They all had experience of furt h e r
or higher education and either distinguished themselves from other sex workers and/or
p roblematic drug users or spoke strongly in favour of sex worker rights issues.
Service impact on sexual health
Promoting sexual health has been a dominant aim of services for sex workers. Since the
original focus on service use was to learn about exiting experiences rather than their impact
on participants’ health there is little data on this. The only information on sexual health
comes from quantitative data on most recent sexual health check and number of diagnoses
of sexually transmitted infections. This provides very limited information on sexual health
and as with all self-report data it is unlikely to be accurate.
Relationships between the participants’ use of drug services or services for sex workers and
their sexual health were examined. Thre e - q u a rters (n=73; 76%) of participants using
services for drug users and/or sex workers in the last six months reported having a sexual
health check in this time, compared with half (n=13; 48%) of those not using services in the
last six months. (This association was statistically significant) 4 .
4 See Appendix A – Statpoint 4.
Services
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