Compassion, culture key to treating alcohol use disorder in Black women

Key takeaways:

• Providers should address alcohol use disorder in Black women with compassion and cultural competency.
• Incorporating culture into practice may improve treatment and retention rates.

SAN FRANCISCO — Approaching the treatment of Black women with alcohol use disorder with compassion and cultural competency may improve disparities in treatment and retention, according to a presenter here.

“People come to show up as their whole person,” Ayana Jordan, MD, PhD, an associate professor at the New York University Grossman School of Medicine, said during the presentation at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting. “You have to affirm the humanity of folks, and that’s really important when we are thinking about people who are systematically oppressed and marginalized.”

In her practice, Jordan emphasizes to patients she is happy about them coming to see her, regardless of the results of their urine tests.

Additionally, Jordan said it is important to incorporate Black culture into treatment.

“‘Being a Black woman, how does that affect who you are?’ We have to be able to ask that question,” Jordan said. “We can’t ascribe to a colorblind philosophy because it’s not helping us reach the outcomes that we want.”

It can also be helpful to match patients with providers who share a cultural identity, she said.

Jordan also said that solutions to close gaps in treatment and retention should include the recognition of barriers to treatment. Such barriers include not having childcare, fears about being referred to the department of children and families and “the myth of the strong Black woman,” she said.

Another intervention involves understanding the role of treatment readiness, she said. For patients who do not want to stop using alcohol, they might want to limit how much or when they are drinking, such as when their children are home, Jordan said.

Finally, providers should be transparent about how they are addressing barriers, what their goals for treatment are and how the treatments they are prescribing work.

“Black patients in general are less likely to have time with their doctors and doctors are less likely to go over lists of side effects, so we want to make sure that we are actually being very objective in our time with folks,” Jordan said.