Critical Conversation: “Substance use and recovery for people genderized as women”

Let’s have a conversation about what addiction looks like in people socialized as women. What typically co-occurs with substance use? When does substance use become disordered, and what does recovery look like? What policies determine who is allowed to be pregnant or parent while using substances or pursuing recovery? How does discrimination inform institutional and societal responses to substance use? Please come with questions and ideas to contribute to this complicated and important conversation about what it means to be socialized female in the context of substance use, recovery, and the reproductive life course.

Facilitated by: Julia Reddy, MCH Doctoral Student, minoring in Epidemiology

Julia came to UNC after serving for six years as the coordinator of women’s addiction treatment for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts’ Department of Public Health. Prior to that work, she received a master's degree in Human Development and Child Study from Tufts University's Eliot Pearson School. Professionally, Julia has focused on enacting policies and improving the design of addiction treatment and community-based service systems to better meet the needs of women, perinatal women, and families affected by substance use disorders. Her research interests include inequities and systemic barriers to care affecting families impacted by addiction as well as the role technology can play in improving the availability, consistency, and quality of health and social services.