Welcome To Brighton Oasis Project
Brighton Oasis Project aims to improve the lives and maximise the potential of the diverse range of women, children and young people affected by substance misuse. We seek to prevent and reduce drug and alcohol related harm to women and their families by providing services which offer a continuum of support from harm minimization through to total abstinence, which are complemented by specialist services for children, young people and women working in the sex industry.
Women Only
We are sometimes asked why we are a women only service. There are a number of reasons we only provide treatment for adult women substance misuse users:
• Women don’t access drug treatment services as frequently as men; typically there are 3 men to every woman.
• Women substance misusers are different to their male counterparts. Women are more likely to have a partner with a substance misuse problem, more likely to have experienced trauma related to physical and sexual abuse and more likely to have ongoing mental health problems.
• One of the problems in identifying women’s needs as substance misusers is that studies on drug users have frequently ignored them and focused only on men. When this is combined with women’s reluctance to ask for treatment it has the effect of rendering them invisible.
Oasis exists as a women only service to provide a welcoming and friendly environment with childcare facilities to try and address the inequality women face in getting help with their substance misuse. We know from asking our service users that they really appreciate the space to look at their problems in a women only environment. Our services for children and young people are non gender specific.