Almost a year ago, SRC brought together recovery communities, researchers, organisations, and partners from across Scotland for our national conference in Perth — Connecting Recovery.
It was a day of broad, honest conversation about the future of recovery in Scotland. And within it, one of six workshops asked a question that had been building for some time: are Scotland’s recovery systems truly working for women?
What happened in that room — the clarity, the urgency, and the breadth of experience in the conversation — helped give shape and direction to the work that followed.
From workshop to co-produced resource
The Women in Recovery workshop at our June 2025 conference was one piece of a much longer journey. For 18 months prior, SRC had been building a clearer picture of women’s experiences through a national baseline study, a rapid evidence review, and a national policy synthesis — all examined through a gendered lens.
After the conference, between August 2025 and February 2026, that work deepened further. SRC brought together more than 140 people and organisations from across Scotland — women with lived experience, practitioners, researchers, community partners, and specialists across multiple fields — to explore in detail the intersecting challenges women face in relation to substance use, recovery, and the systems meant to support them.
That process is now captured in the Women in Recovery Themes 1–6, available now on our Women in Recovery hub.
What the themes cover
The six themes explore some of the most significant and consistently under-addressed dimensions of women’s experiences:
Theme 1 — Women Who Have Had Their Children Removed
Fear, stigma, and punitive system responses create powerful barriers for women who have lost custody of their children. This session theme examines what genuine, compassionate support looks like and what needs to change in how services respond.
Theme 2 — Women’s Health, Menopause and Drug and Alcohol Harm
Menopause remains poorly understood across substance use and recovery services. This theme draws on emerging evidence to highlight the specific, often invisible, health needs of women at this life stage — and what more informed, responsive practice requires.
Theme 3 — Women, Domestic Abuse and Drug and Alcohol Harm
For many women, recovery is inseparable from leaving harmful relationships and rebuilding safety and a sense of self. This theme examines the deep entanglement between domestic abuse and substance use, and the need for systems to respond to the whole picture.
Theme 4 — Women, Gambling and Drug and Alcohol Harm
Gambling harm among women is rising and consistently under-recognised. This theme surfaces a growing area of need that recovery systems are only beginning to understand and respond to.
Theme 5 — Women, Drug and Alcohol Harm and the Justice System
Women in the justice system face compounding disadvantages rooted in gendered inequality. This theme examines what more compassionate, trauma-informed, and rights-based responses would look like in practice.
Theme 6 — Women, Neurodiversity and Drug and Alcohol Harm
Many women arrive in recovery with undiagnosed or under-supported neurodivergent conditions. This theme explores how services can better recognise and respond to those needs — rather than misreading them as disengagement or non-compliance.
A resource built for action
The theme 1–6 document is not a report to be read and filed. It is a practical tool — designed to support HSCPs, ADPs, recovery organisations, community groups, women’s organisations, and wider public services to use the WiR findings to spark genuine local conversations and drive systemic change.
Each theme includes evidence and analysis, real-world examples, questions for local reflection, and practical recommendations — structured so that any area can use them to examine how well their current systems recognise and respond to women’s needs.
SRC can support local areas to bring this work to life: through facilitated workshops, cross-sector roundtables, support to embed lived experience into local planning, and connections to the national network focused on improving outcomes for women.
This is only the beginning
The insights gathered through this process are deepening our collective understanding of what women need from recovery systems. But understanding alone is not sufficient. The purpose of this work is to change what happens next — for women across Scotland who deserve systems that see them fully, respond with compassion, and treat their rights as non-negotiable.
We are grateful to every person who contributed their time, their openness, and their belief that things can and must be better. Nearly a year on from that conference, this feels like the right moment to put this work in your hands.
