Lives of Substance: a mixed-method evaluation of a public information website on addiction experiences
The Lives of Substance (LoS) website presents personal experiences of drug use and ‘addiction’ in people’s own words as part of a larger project of complicating public discourses of addiction, countering stigmatising misconceptions and acting as an intervention in the social production of addiction....
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
| Published: |
Informa Healthcare
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/59251 |
| _version_ | 1848760427472748544 |
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| author | Treloar, C. Pienaar, Kiran Dilkes-Frayne, E. Fraser, Suzanne |
| author_facet | Treloar, C. Pienaar, Kiran Dilkes-Frayne, E. Fraser, Suzanne |
| author_sort | Treloar, C. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The Lives of Substance (LoS) website presents personal experiences of drug use and ‘addiction’ in people’s own words as part of a larger project of complicating public discourses of addiction, countering stigmatising misconceptions and acting as an intervention in the social production of addiction. This article presents the findings of a mixed-method evaluation of the website, and comments on some of the methodological and practical challenges of evaluating health-related online information resources. Method: Three data sources were used to examine such as the reach of the website (website analytics); experiences of the website audience (responses to an evaluation survey on the website); and other indicators of use and impact (including social media referrals and organisational links). Results: In the 10-week evaluation period, 3970 unique users visited the website. Comments provided via the online survey endorsed the website as a means of challenging stereotypes and as presenting drug use as only a ‘part of a person’s whole life’. Twenty-four organisations had linked to the website and 987 social media referrals were recorded. Conclusion: These data indicate that the LoS website is having some success as a resource for countering addiction-related stigma and offering more holistic and inclusive social understandings of addiction. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T10:15:36Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-59251 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T10:15:36Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Informa Healthcare |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-592512019-04-15T00:54:12Z Lives of Substance: a mixed-method evaluation of a public information website on addiction experiences Treloar, C. Pienaar, Kiran Dilkes-Frayne, E. Fraser, Suzanne The Lives of Substance (LoS) website presents personal experiences of drug use and ‘addiction’ in people’s own words as part of a larger project of complicating public discourses of addiction, countering stigmatising misconceptions and acting as an intervention in the social production of addiction. This article presents the findings of a mixed-method evaluation of the website, and comments on some of the methodological and practical challenges of evaluating health-related online information resources. Method: Three data sources were used to examine such as the reach of the website (website analytics); experiences of the website audience (responses to an evaluation survey on the website); and other indicators of use and impact (including social media referrals and organisational links). Results: In the 10-week evaluation period, 3970 unique users visited the website. Comments provided via the online survey endorsed the website as a means of challenging stereotypes and as presenting drug use as only a ‘part of a person’s whole life’. Twenty-four organisations had linked to the website and 987 social media referrals were recorded. Conclusion: These data indicate that the LoS website is having some success as a resource for countering addiction-related stigma and offering more holistic and inclusive social understandings of addiction. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/59251 10.1080/09687637.2017.1397602 Informa Healthcare fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Treloar, C. Pienaar, Kiran Dilkes-Frayne, E. Fraser, Suzanne Lives of Substance: a mixed-method evaluation of a public information website on addiction experiences |
| title | Lives of Substance: a mixed-method evaluation of a public information website on addiction experiences |
| title_full | Lives of Substance: a mixed-method evaluation of a public information website on addiction experiences |
| title_fullStr | Lives of Substance: a mixed-method evaluation of a public information website on addiction experiences |
| title_full_unstemmed | Lives of Substance: a mixed-method evaluation of a public information website on addiction experiences |
| title_short | Lives of Substance: a mixed-method evaluation of a public information website on addiction experiences |
| title_sort | lives of substance: a mixed-method evaluation of a public information website on addiction experiences |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/59251 |