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Isolation, solitude and social distancing for people who use drugs: An ethnographic perspective

Roe, Laura; Proudfoot, Jesse; Tay Wee Teck, Joseph; Irvine, Richard D.G.; Frankland, Stan; Baldacchino, Alexander Mario

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Authors

Laura Roe

Joseph Tay Wee Teck

Richard D.G. Irvine

Stan Frankland

Alexander Mario Baldacchino



Abstract

COVID-19 has resulted in deepened states of crisis and vulnerability for people who use drugs throughout Europe and across the world, with social distancing measures having far-reaching implications for everyday life. Prolonged periods of isolation and solitude are acknowledged within much addiction literature as negatively impacting the experiences of those in recovery, while also causing harm to active users – many of whom depend on social contact for the purchasing and taking of substances, as well as myriad forms of support. Solitude, however, is proposed by the authors as inherent within some aspects of substance use, far from particular to the current pandemic. Certain forms of substance use engender solitary experience, even where use is predicated upon the presence of others. Adopting a cross-disciplinary perspective, this paper takes as its focus the urgent changes wrought by the pandemic upon everyday life for people who use drugs, drawing on recent ethnographic fieldwork with substance users in Scotland. Beyond the current crises, the paper proposes solitude, and by extension isolation, as an analytical framework for better apprehending lived experiences of substance use.

Citation

Roe, L., Proudfoot, J., Tay Wee Teck, J., Irvine, R. D., Frankland, S., & Baldacchino, A. M. (2021). Isolation, solitude and social distancing for people who use drugs: An ethnographic perspective. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, Article 623032. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.623032

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Dec 16, 2020
Online Publication Date Jan 13, 2021
Publication Date 2021
Deposit Date Jan 20, 2021
Publicly Available Date Jan 20, 2021
Journal Frontiers in Psychiatry
Electronic ISSN 1664-0640
Publisher Frontiers Media
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 11
Article Number 623032
DOI https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.623032
Public URL https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1247367

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Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Copyright Statement
Copyright © 2021 Roe, Proudfoot, Tay Wee Teck, Irvine, Frankland and Baldacchino. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.





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