Exploring Drug Practitioners' Perspectives of Roles within a UK and Swedish Drug Treatment Service

This research study aims to draw comparisons on similarities and differences in how drug treatment practitioners perceive and conduct their therapeutic roles working in UK and Swedish drug treatment services. Previous research shows that global ideologies influence national policies that then influence drug treatment practitioners in how they conduct their work. To further explore the practitioners’ perspectives, four semi- structured interviews were conducted with practitioners in both a Swedish and UK Drug Service. The interviews were analyzed through thematic analysis and three themes and three sub-themes emerged from the statements of the practitioners and were then further analysed to explore similarities and differences. The results show that there were similarities in that all practitioners emphasized the importance of creating a therapeutic alliance with the service users, they all had some form of internal and external collaboration and they all used evidence based methods. The same areas showed differences when explored in greater detail. The theoretical framework of Social Constructionism and Labelling Theory was used to explore the results