Methamphetamines: Cross sectional-survey exploring police and paramedic attitudes and perceptions of deservingness of care

Abstract

Research on stigmatization of drug addiction is demonstrating that health professionals often hold negative attitudes towards patients with drug addiction, which may impact the quality of care the patient receives (Birtel, Wood, & Kempa, 2017; Skinner, Feather, Freeman, & Roche, 2007). Patients often perceive stigmatization and negative attitudes from health professionals and this can lead to patients' expectations of negative or judgmental attitudes when accessing health care, poor communication between patients and health profes-sionals (van Boekel, Brouwers, van Weeghel, & Garretsen, 2013), patients' feelings of worthlessness, shame, and self-judgment, and patients' reluctance to engage in treatment or seek medical attention (Kelly & Westerhoff, 2010; Lloyd, 2013; van Boekel et al., 2013).