Life Events and Other Stressors of Diversion Drug Court Participants: An Exploratory Analysis of Race and Gender Differences

Abstract

National Key Components (Defining Drug Courts, 2004) and Florida Best Practices guide drug court operations in Florida (Florida Best Practices, 2017). These documents acknowledge that other stressors and life events may occur along with drug court participation and state that in addition to drug and alcohol treatment, programs should include support services- e.g., peer support or twelve step meetings, transportation and housing assistance, services for physical and mental health needs. We sought to understand the domains and types of co-occurring life events and stressors experienced by participants of one diversionary drug court by coding qualitative notes made by team members (i.e., case managers, treatment, and support service staff) in the online administrative data system. We found the most common stressor domains among the full sample were transportation, finances, and physical health. Among men finances were the most common stressor but among women the most common was physical health. Among African American, White, and participants who were another race, transportation and finances were both the most mentioned stressors. Findings can help drug court team members better understand life events and stressors of their participant population which can help team members better connect participants to appropriate support services.