Strengths-Based Support for Pregnant, Birthing, and Parenting Individuals who Use Drugs

Strength-based approaches are at the core of social work practice, as they focus on the positive attributes of service users and move away from constructions of people as personal and social problems. These approaches are often employed across health and social care sectors when supporting the needs of individuals and communities engaged with social work. While strengths-based social work practice is intentional about drawing on the resilience and resources of individuals and communities, applying critical theoretical approaches can help with recognizing the effects of oppressive structures and constraining systems on the lives of oppressed groups and communities. This kind of integrated approach has been especially important in social work practice and research with pregnant, birthing, and parenting people who use drugs. Using examples from our practice and research in the form of vignettes, we will demonstrate how strengths-based approaches are enhanced by grounding our work in a reproductive justice framework and by integrating anti-racist, harm-reduction, and intersectional feminist approaches to practice and research with pregnant, birthing, and parenting people who consume cannabis.