Assessing Residential Rehabilitation for Women (ARROW)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
ARROW: Assessing the potential of a women only, gender- and trauma-informed residential rehabilitation pathway for drug dependent women leaving prison: Feasibility Study.
IRAS ID
360681
Contact name
Michael Barber
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of York
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 3 months, 31 days
Research summary
Female prisoners are more likely than male prisoners to use Class A drugs. They often commit crimes to support their drug use and, when they are sent to prison, they frequently ask for help with that drug use. Many women leave prison without a support plan to stay off drugs and most do not even have a safe place to live. Women can find drug treatment services that accept both men and women difficult because of their experiences of trauma and violence. So it is possible that women-only residential rehabilitation (WORR) might work better in supporting their recovery.
WORR services can provide specialist women-centred support, safe accommodation, and help with other issues such as trauma and mental health.
We will examine whether moving women directly from prison to WORR services can support their long term recovery from drug use, helping both them and their children. As well as long term recovery from drug dependency, we will explore all the other ways in which the women’s lives might have improved, such as employment, housing, relationships with children and better mental and physical health.
This study is part of six work packages and will test whether the best way to evaluate this rehabilitative pathway from prison to WORR is through conducting a randomised controlled trial (RCT). However, because we know that RCTs in criminal justice settings are challenging to get right, we are conducting a feasibility study. This will help us work out whether an RCT is the best way to test whether going from prison to WORR is the most effective way to support women leaving prison and trying to recover from drug dependency or whether other methods are effective. We will also conduct a health economic analysis to explore the scope of costs, benefits and value for money of WORR.REC name
North East - York Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
25/NE/0210
Date of REC Opinion
6 Jan 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion