Sex work stigma and the recuperation of moral personhood through gendered labour: sex worker diaries in Ukraine.

Based on a diary writing exercise, this paper illuminates the complex ways in which sex workers in Ukraine actively work through and manage stigma in their daily lives. Pushing beyond the notion of stigma as a static and fixed psychosocial designation that can be readily measured, we argue that stigma is actively confronted by sex workers through various forms of gendered emotional and physical labour that enable them to recuperate a sense of moral personhood. This notion of moral personhood is often tied to wider gender-specific values pertaining to caregiving and motherhood.

Exploring the impact of military conflict on sex work in Ukraine: Women's experiences of economic burden.

Little is known about the impact of military conflict on sex work from the perspective of sex workers. We attempt to explore the meaning of conflict on sex work by asking women about the changes that they have experienced in their lives and work since the beginning of the 2014 military conflict in eastern Ukraine. The findings in this article are based on qualitative interviews with 43 cisgender women living and practicing sex work in Dnipro, eastern Ukraine. Our analysis highlights the meanings that sex workers have linked to the conflict, with financial concerns emerging as a dominant theme. The conflict therefore functions as a way of understanding changing economic circumstances with both individual and broader impacts. By better understanding the meaning of conflict as expressed by sex workers, we can begin to adapt our response to address emerging, and unmet, needs of the community.

Stigma and discrimination related to mental health and substance use issues in primary health care in Toronto, Canada: a qualitative study.

PURPOSE: Community Health Centres (CHCs) are an essential component of primary health care (PHC) in Canada. This article examines health providers' understandings and experiences regarding stigma towards mental health and substance use (MHSU) issues, as well as their ideas for an effective intervention to address stigma and discrimination, in three CHCs in Toronto, Ontario. METHODS: Using a phenomenological approach, we conducted twenty-three interviews with senior staff members and peer workers, and three focus groups with front-line health providers. Ahybrid approach to thematic analysis was employed, entailing a combination of emergent and a priori coding. RESULTS: The findings indicate that PHC settings are sites where multiple forms of stigma create health service barriers. Stigma and discrimination associated with MHSU also cohere around intersecting experiences of gender, race, class, age and other issues including the degree and visibility of distress. Clients may find social norms to be alienating, including behavioural expectations in Canadian PHC settings. CONCLUSIONS: Given the turmoil in clients' lives, systematic efforts to mitigate stigma were inhibited by myriad proximate factors that demanded urgent response. Health providers were enthusiastic about implementing anti-stigma/recovery-based approaches that could be integrated into current CHC services. Their recommendations for interventions centred around communication and education, such as training, CHC-wide meetings, and anti-stigma campaigns in surrounding communities.