Physician referrals to addiction treatment services for women at risk of using substances while pregnant

To improve the frequency with which physicians refer at-risk women to appropriate treatment, it is necessary to examine the referral process, identify those involved in the referral process, and assess the barriers to referral. [...] Refer to Table 1 for a brief summary of the barriers faced by patients and physicians during the different stages of the referral process; this summary highlights the main themes that emerged from the literature review. [...] When necessary, the scope of the literature search expanded to substance use among the general population to fill in gaps where there was a lack of research specific to women and pregnancy. [...] In the literature, at-risk women have criticized treatment services because of a lack of appropriate programs for women only, a lack of programs for parental services and parental training, a lack of child-care services, long waiting lists, distant services accompanied by a lack of transportation, and a limited number of referral services in rural regions (Tait, 2000; Currie, 2001; Dore & Doris, 1 [...] According to the study, physicians most often acted on suspicions in order to help the patient, to protect the fetus and prevent fetal problems, and to cease their patients’ substance use.