Rates and Correlates of Alcohol/Other Drug Treatment Denials for People With Disabilities in the United Kingdom

Previous research with U.S. samples has demonstrated that barriers to physical access directly result in service denials to persons with disabilities (PWDs) seeking substance abuse treatment. To date, however, such findings are limited to samples from the United States and only with regard to persons with physical disabilities. The present research sought to examine such issues in Great Britain and to further the scope of study by assessing the impact of programmatic barriers on the ability of individuals with developmental and sensory disabilities to access care. Results indicate that service denials to PWDs with physical disabilities are common, with 60% to 75% of respondents indicating that they had declined services to PWDs. Programmatic barriers resulted in service declines to persons with developmental disabilities (33%) but not to individuals with sensory disabilities. This research further indicates that physical access barriers result in treatment denials to persons with physical disabilities and that programmatic barriers may result in similar declines to persons of select disability groups.

KEYWORDS

• Persons with disabilities,
• substance abuse treatment,
• treatment denials,
• treatment access