The work involves providing an intensive support package for those women involved in street sex work (SSW’s) & substance misuse who wish to change their lifestyle, in the women’s words ‘get clean’ & have a ‘normal life’. Common assumptions are that SSW’s are out there by choice, and that drug use is by choice. This assumes that all sex workers are in control of their lives but the reality today is that the majority of SSW’s are trapped in a vicious circle, funding their own substance misuse and funding a partner’s substance misuse at a monetary cost of around £50-£350 per day. At a personal cost of hopelessness, vulnerability, low/ no self esteem, no aspiration, stigma, Hepatitis A, B & C, deep vein thrombosis, abscesses, risk of sexually transmitted infections, loss of children, drug overdose, robbery, arrest, physical assault, sexual assault including rape, and loss of life through murder. . . . . .

	Some of the team...
	Anne Marie House
	Shelley Brown-Powell
	Sarah Cotton T.P Community Drugs Outreach Worker

Not only is sex work a way of funding their drug use but street sex work requires the use of even more drugs just to function out there, to deaden all feelings around what’s involved, to blank off the pain & shame they feel, to work the long hours sex work demands and to function to an extent in their daily lives.

So what did exiting actually involve for the
women?

• Firstly motivation, courage and determination bythe women
• Trust in the services on offer
• Access to drug treatment
• Housing or re Housing plus Benefits advice
• Cutting off all other contacts (other working women, drug dealers who were about to lose a lot of money by her exit)
• Support in attending appointments/meeting travel expenses
• Individual emotional support
• Structured care/action plans
• Education/training

So what did exiting actually involve for the women?

• We needed to identify agencies women would need to come into contact with and discuss what support these agencies could offer
• Fast tracking to drug treatment programmes, entering a drugs programme was unlikely to be successful on its own as without fast tracking other interventions could fail (women needed to access treatment as soon as their decision to change was made, not go on a 3 to 6 months waiting list)
• Access to alternative drug treatment therapies, confidence & self esteem workshops
• Common assessment forms
• Varying opening times plus flexibility of our workers instance and/or meeting travel expenses
• Recognising that moving towards exiting & actually exiting from street sex work is a long and complex process (between 1yr & 18months). There not only have to be a range of inter-agencies available for women to access when needed, but services needed to be developed that support women once they have exited and are moving on, for instance specialist counselling.
• We also understood that street sex work and substance abuse couldn’t be tackled in isolation of women’s other needs so a co-ordinated approach was more likely to sort complex issues and overcome fear of disclosing lifestyle etc

With all the above in place, 37 women accessed REST between April 03-March 04.

REST phone number : (0114) 2200666