Karin Heimdahl’s research while affiliated with Stockholm University and other places

Pregnancy for women who use substances has sometimes been referred to as a “window of opportunity” for lifestyle change. In this article, the aim is to analyze professional accounts of the transition of substance-using pregnant women into parenthood. Focus groups were carried out with professionals working at specialized maternity care units in Sweden. The analysis is guided by the discursive psychological concept of “ideological dilemma” and focuses on contradictory elements of commonsense-making in the participants’ discussions. The results suggest that professionals articulate two, partly contradictory, ideals: on the one hand, “believing in the patient” and, on the other, “being realistic.” In their descriptions of their work with patients, professionals emphasize the significance of adjusting the self-image of the patients and increasing their awareness of their “abuse” problems in order to prevent future clashes between high expectations and reality. At the same time, they also underline that interacting with and treating those patients with the most serious problems as individuals with unforeseen strengths and resources is a matter of professional duty.

I en berättelse om något man varit med om berättar man inte bara om sig själv utan visar också sin inställning till det man berättar om och den kultur och det värderingssystem som händelsen är inbäddad i. Genom att analysera berättelser blir det därmed möjligt att belysa vilka föreställningar och uppfattningar kring en företeelse som är tongivande i ett visst socialt sammanhang. Artikeln utgår från barndomsminnen skrivna av nu vuxna personer födda mellan 1933 och 1962. Deras berättelser om situationer under barndomen då deras föräldrar berusat sig varierar med den tid som återges och med de kulturella föreställningar som knyts till kombinationen barn, föräldrar och alkohol.

The aim of this scoping review was to give an overview of efficacy research on psychosocial interventions aimed at substance-abusing parents with children of up to the age of three. Throughout the overview, there was a focus on underlying assumptions and how the problem descriptions motivating the interventions corresponded with the solutions, i.e. the interventions in question. The data consisted of peer reviewed intervention studies (n = 22) identified through literature searches in online databases. Randomised controlled trial studies as well as quasi-experimental and pre-post studies were included. The results showed that all the studies included bar one focused exclusively on women as parents. Moreover, while the problem descriptions in the studies tended to be quite broad, framing parental substance abuse as a problem influenced by social and structural conditions, the solutions presented in the form of interventions generally had a narrower focus, addressing the individual parent from a psychological perspective only. In conclusion, the review points out the need for developing and evaluating interventions aimed at substance-abusing fathers as well as mothers, and also underscores the importance of these interventions being focused on a broader range of factors rather than just addressing deficits at the level of the individual.

Anthology of social alcohol and drug research. Inledningen: ”Syftet med den här boken är att presentera ett urval av aktuell svensk samhällsvetenskaplig alkohol- och drogforskning. Boken behandlar i första hand alkohol, men narkotika har också en given plats i flera av texterna. Vi vill med dessa kapitel dela med oss av våra erfarenheter och hoppas att boken kan bidra till ett ökat kritiskt och reflekterande tänkande kring rusmedelsfrågan – en fråga som är alltför bred och komplex för att kunna hanteras enbart med ett piller, en lag eller en enskild riktad insats. Boken riktar sig till en bred läsekrets. Den ger högskolestuderande inom olika discipliner en god ingång till och överblick över ämnet. Boken riktar sig också till andra intressenter såsom politiker och tjänstemän, journalister, anställda inom sjukvård, socialtjänst och kriminalvård, samhällsdebattörer, föreningsaktiva på området samt den samhällsintresserade medborgaren.” (s. 9-10)

M. Abrahamson & K. Heimdahl: Gendered discourse in Swedish national alcohol policy action plans 1965-2007: Invisible men and problematic women In a critical discourse analysis of Swedish alcohol policy action plans, we have compared five different documents between 1965–2007 to examine problems with and reasons for women's and men's drinking, and recommendations for policy actions. The results display a hierarchical logic between the genders. During the early years, men's drinking is implicitly constituted as the norm. A basic tenet is that female and male drinking are the same. Women may drink less, but their drinking is not of a different character. It is highly exceptional to make a separation between men's and women's drinking. In later documents, however, the separation of these spheres results in female drinking being depicted as more problematic because of women's more vulnerable condition and individual psychological reasons. In order to highlight female drinking problems, male drinking is being erased from the picture and constructed in a positive contrast. As a consequence, men's drinking is normalised. Finally, in the most recent documents, attention has exceedingly shifted to women as containers of the foetus and to young women's and girls’ sexual behaviour and psychiatric problems.