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    What contributes to alcohol and substance misuse recovery while parenting in integrated residential rehabilitation? : thesis submitted in partial completion of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology, Massey University, Auckland, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2023) Stanley, Laura
    Alcohol and substance use recovery while parenting is a complicated endeavour. People in alcohol and substance misuse recovery while parenting have unique and complex needs, which mainstream treatment approaches cannot always meet. Treatment often focuses solely on substance misuse and fails to pay attention to parenting, and most often, parents and their children are separated during residential treatment. Parents often face the tough decision to either take care of themselves or take care of their children. Integrated treatment services, which include both drug and alcohol treatment and parenting support, have been developed to break the often intergenerational cycle of substance use and troubled parenting. These programmes have rendered successful outcomes in participants achieving and maintaining abstinence, improving their mental health, and supporting responsive parenting. However, little is known about what particular factors in integrated services support these positive changes made in recovery while parenting. The current research explores the unique factors that have contributed to parents’ recovery at the Family Centre, an integrated parent-child rehabilitation facility. The research additionally illustrates the needs of these individuals in recovery. Experiences of recovery and parenting were explored in semi-structured interviews and case studies with mothers undertaking a recovery programme. Through a reflexive thematic analysis, three themes were constructed: ‘The Construction of Self’ ‘The Therapeutic Milieu’, and ‘Relational Recovery’. The complex histories and recovery journeys of research participants were given context through the use of case vignettes. The findings highlight the complex and multifaceted nature of recovery while parenting, particularly the role that parenting plays in driving recovery-orientated change. The relational nature of recovery was a prevalent factor in recovery, providing a developing perspective on how recovery is viewed in research and practice.
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    What works in recovery? Alcohol and other drug professionals lived experiences of addiction, treatment and recovery in New Zealand : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Social Work at Massey University, Manawatū, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2018) Jowett, Rachel Victoria
    The New Zealand Government’s health surveys consistently identify that alcohol and other drug (AOD) addiction is an issue for New Zealanders. However, there is a lack of qualitative research on the lived experiences of people who have previously or currently experience AOD addiction in New Zealand. This research provides insight into the factors that contribute to, and create barriers to, successful AOD addiction recovery. The qualitative method of constructivism was the approach used to conduct the research. Eight participants took part in semistructured interviews, sharing their stories in a narrative style and recounting experiences from the time their addictions began, their entry into AOD addiction recovery and their entry into the AOD workforce. Interview transcripts were analysed using thematic analysis, themes were identified that highlighted what contributed to participant’s successful AOD addiction recovery and what created barriers to AOD addiction recovery. Nine themes emerged through the data analysis process these were: stigma; defining your own recovery; reconstruction of the self; the role of social learning; opportunities for career progression; specific populations including youth, people with co-existing mental health and AOD addiction issues, women, and families; strengths and limitations of the health, social service and AOD workforce; addiction and the law; and barriers to accessing AOD support services. A consistent finding across these nine themes was that the barriers to AOD addiction recovery in New Zealand experienced by the research participants were systemic, and preventable. The recommendations of this thesis are that the barriers to recovery, and contributors to successful recovery identified in this research are addressed; in particular the themes of stigma and systemic barriers to wellbeing.
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    The nurse and the problem drinker : a study of helping behaviour : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Nursing Studies at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1981) Bramley, Cicely Jean
    The purpose of this study is to examine aspects of the behaviour of nurses towards persons with alcohol-related problems. Similarities and differences in helpful and unhelpful behaviour as perceived by providers and by users of care are identified using the Behaviour Relating to Alcoholism Management (B.R.A.M.) Scale. The research covers two phases. In Phase One 27 registered nurses and 12 members of Alcoholics Anonymous completed critical incident questionnaires which furnished a list of helpful behaviours and a list of unhelpful behaviours. These have been analysed and a set of descriptive statements prepared which constitutes the B.R.A.M. Scale. In Phase Two this has been administered to 67 registered nurses and 46 members of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the results assessed. The findings show that nurses and problem drinkers view the same behaviours as helpful. There is, however, a significant difference between the two groups in the types of behaviour they consider to be unhelpful. This finding has consequences for those who provide care for problem drinkers, and for teachers and students in education programmes for nurses.
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    Negotiating recovery from alcoholism in the context of the Canterbury earthquakes : a thesis submitted to Massey University in fulfilment of the requirements for a Master of Philosophy, Massey University, February 2014
    (Massey University, 2014) Williamson, Kerry J
    This study employs narrative inquiry to document participants’ experiences in relation to maintaining sobriety while living through the Christchurch earthquakes. Eight women and one man were recruited via purposive sampling. Of the 9 participants, 4 were in stable recovery (greater than 5 years), 2 were in sustained recovery (between 1 and 5 years) and 3 were in early recovery (less than 1 year). Qualitative data was gathered using semi-structured, in-depth interviews utilising thematic analysis and incorporating an abductive logic. In the process of recovery from alcohol dependence previous life trauma, environmental conditions, uncertainty about the future and limited resources can be both barriers to recovery from alcoholism and growth opportunities after natural disaster. For some of the participants who contributed to this research, memories of early childhood abuse were recalled and symbolised by the seismic activity during the greater earthquake period. Participants in early recovery or relapsing continued to experience traumatic stress through re-victimisation or trauma re-enactment. Some participants in active addiction identified the earthquakes as both a hindrance and a help with their drinking and self-harming behaviour. For others, a sense of deep personal loss was felt when viewing the devastation of the ruined city which mirrored and reminded them of their life in active addiction. The research findings extend and complement existing theories of ambiguous loss and Post Traumatic Growth (PTG) within the context of addiction and recovery capital. This research also adds to the addiction, domestic violence and disaster literature that is currently available. Narratives of participants in short or long term recovery, suggested that ambiguous loss, and associated grief stemming from both situational and cumulative trauma, surfaced when viewing the earthquake damage. Living through the earthquakes was a time of adaptation and resourcefulness for all but for alcoholics in recovery extra resilience was needed to attend to addiction recovery within the larger picture of daily disaster coping. For all participants post traumatic growth was both an outcome and a process creating a more robust identity at individual levels, post disaster. Findings indicate that trauma can be instrumental in creating alcohol abuse and dependency and that recovery from alcoholism after natural disaster is a complex process requiring personal, community and political interventions.
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    Evaluation of the relationship between lifestyle balance, emotional regulation, and relapse with individuals with drug and/or alcohol problems : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science in Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Dicks, Casey William
    Drug and alcohol abuse costs the country over $5.3 billion per year (Slack, Nana, Webster, Stokes, & Wu, 2009). Treatment can reduce both the health and social cost of drug and alcohol abuse (Rout, 2008) but relapse remains a major problem (Stewart, 2000). Studies have shown lifestyle balance and emotion regulation are important factors in relapse prevention (Thakker & Ward, 2012; Matto, Strolin & Mogro-Wilson, 2008). This study explored the relationship between lifestyle balance, emotion regulation and relapse with 25 participants, aged between 18 and 55, actively seeking treatment through CADS North Action group. Participants reported their subjective lifestyle balance, emotion regulation, and whether they had relapsed, at three time periods (pre-, mid-, and post-treatment). Relapse rates were 56% at pre-, 42% at mid-, and 25% at post-treatment. Results indicate a positive relationship between lifestyle balance and relapse, which suggests that as lifestyle balance improves relapse decreases. Results also indicate that, as emotion regulation improves relapse decreases. A newly developed lifestyle balance questionnaire (LBQ) showed good psychometric properties, which were comparable with existing measures. This study addresses a gap in the literature on the relationship between lifestyle balance, emotion regulation and relapse, in a drug and alcohol population, and seems to be the first of its kind in New Zealand. Limitations of the research and future directions are discussed.
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    Personality correlates of problem drinking in New Zealand : a dissertation presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1977) Worthington, Carol Lindsay
    In an attempt to isolate differential personality characteristics of problem drinkers in New Zealand, 100 problem drinkers, 60 non-problem drinking psychiatric patients, 30 non-problem drinking prison inmates, and 30 abstainers were compared on a number of characteristics extracted from an extensive literature review, preference being given to those which longitudinal studies had indicated might be predisposing to adoption of an addictive rather than a non-addictive pathology. Predictions were confirmed in that problem drinkers manifested diminished investment in the heterosexual role by being covertly orientated to males rather than females (on a measure of seconds spent eye-fixating on pictures of naked males versus females) while verbalizing overtly a preference for the female picture of each opposite-sex pair, from which it was inferred that "defensive masculinity" functioned to obscure covert masculine inadequacy; problem drinkers were socially isolated, with marked difficulties in establishing close relationships and preferring short-term, superficial, casual encounters coupled with withdrawal from stable emotional commitments (biographical data questionnaire); they were also extremely field dependent (embedded figures), intensely aggressive (inventory and stereoscope), manifested a very short future time perspective (personal events methods), and had considerable difficulties in the area of socialization (inventory). They had also experienced home backgrounds in which they were often deprived of sustained contact with a father, either through lengthy separations or the father's emotional withdrawal or antagonistic, rejecting behaviour. The one prediction not confirmed dealt with an attempt to mobilize anxieties over putative dependency and masculine inadequacy, with the expectation that threat to these would result in greater (spurious) self-sufficiency and masculinity scores on inventories, relative to subjects not threatened. While there was some tentative evidence of threat effect on drinkers and abstainers, results were equivocal and the null hypothesis could not be rejected. However, patients differed from the other groups in readily admitting to much less self-sufficiency and masculinity. On all measures drinkers were distinguished from patients (other than in the sharing of social anxieties, though patients were not socially isolated or superficial), and from abstainers (except that drinkers, abstainers, and criminals did not differ in declaring themselves extremely self-sufficient and masculine), but on socialization, and on aggressiveness as measured by the stereoscope, drinkers did not differ from criminals whereas abstainers were hyper-conventional. By comparing young early with old early starters it proved possible to demonstrate that years of chronic inebriety did not influence the characteristics isolated, especially field dependence, aggressiveness, and under-socialization. Younger drinkers were more disturbed than older ones in the areas of aggressiveness and socialization, on inventory measures and on such indices as wanderlust, occupational instability (from preference), impulsiveness, promiscuity, antisocial behaviour during school years (habitual truanting, stealing, disciplinary problems), and having extensive criminal records. 26% whose pathological drinking began after age 40 were much more neurotic-like. Conclusions were that problem drinkers suffered from a personality disorder more severe than a neurosis, and that early socialization difficulties were those most likely to predict later problem drinking.