4 June 2026
“Thank you for treating me like a person.” For Kathleen (Katie) Ward, a comment from a study participant has stayed with her throughout her work researching trauma, mental health and HIV prevention among women who inject drugs.
Now a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University, Katie focuses on how services can better support women who use drugs through trauma-informed approaches, while centring the voices and experiences of women in both research and care.
As one of the first recipients of the INHSU Fellowship Program, Katie is hoping to continue building collaborations and strengthen the real-world impact of her research.
The INHSU Fellowship Program is a nine-month initiative supporting early and mid-career professionals working to improve health outcomes for women who use drugs through mentorship, training and global collaboration.
Can you tell us a bit about yourself, your work, and how it connects with women who use drugs?
I am a postdoctoral research fellow at Columbia University, working in the School of Social Work.
During my doctoral training at Drexel University, I worked with Dr. Alexis Roth on an HIV prevention trial in Philadelphia that was specifically designed for women who inject drugs. We used a trauma-informed care approach to support pre-exposure prophylaxis adherence and retention in care in a randomized controlled trial called TIARAS.
My work has really focused on the intersection of substance use, mental health, trauma and infectious disease prevention, and making sure that the voices and experiences of women who use drugs are central to that research.
What led you into this area of work?
I started my research career in Baltimore, working in an infectious diseases clinic on studies focused on hepatitis C linkage to care.
What stood out to me early on was that most of the participants in these studies were men. It was a lightbulb moment that made me start to think about who we were missing.
Women are really underrepresented in drug use research, and I became interested in trying to better understand their experiences and what kinds of services would actually work for them.
That led me to focus more on working alongside women who use drugs, and learning directly from them about what they need in order to access and stay engaged in care, especially mental health care which is what I primarily work in now.
What are the most pressing gaps you are seeing for women who use drugs?
One of the biggest gaps I have seen is access to low-barrier mental health care for women who inject drugs especially.
During my doctoral studies, in collaboration with our TIARAS community advisory board, I developed a traumatic life events index specifically for women who use drugs. We wanted to make sure the index, which was a list of traumatic events that women could read through and indicate if they had occurred, spoke to their lived experiences.
For some women, this was the first time they had ever disclosed these experiences, ranging from physical and sexual violence to events such as losing custody of a child, miscarriage, and witnessing a fatal opioid overdose. The index was self-administered on a tablet and created a private, non-judgmental space to share experiences that could be stigmatizing.
Through that process, it became clear that many women want access to mental health care, but in a way that feels safe, trauma-informed and tailored to their needs.
A lot of women are carrying significant trauma, but there are very few services that feel accessible or appropriate. Addressing that gap, and understanding how and where those services should be offered, is a key focus of my research.
What challenges do you face in your work?
In research, we tend to focus a lot on participants and tailoring interventions to their needs, but something that often gets overlooked is the people delivering that care.
A big challenge is making sure the staff and peers working directly with women who use drugs are supported. They are often working with highly traumatised populations and dealing with very heavy, difficult conversations, and there is a lot of burnout in the harm reduction and nonprofit workforce.
Alongside expanding access to trauma-informed services, it is really important that the people implementing them are well trained, well-resourced and feel supported in their roles. When that is in place, there is much more opportunity to engage community health workers and peers in delivering mental health care effectively.
What is working well in your setting?
Thinking about TIARAS, which takes place at a SSP and harm reduction clinic in Philadelphia, we have been evaluating a trauma-focused expressive writing intervention based on Pennebaker and Beall’s Writing to Heal approach.
Participants are given the opportunity to write about a traumatic experience in a structured way over several sessions, and then process that experience in a supportive environment.
The study is still on-going but what we have seen so far is that women really value having that kind of space. For many, it is one of the first opportunities they have had to reflect on and share those experiences in a trauma-informed and supportive way.
The hope is that it also opens the door to other aspects of healthcare, whether that’s connecting with PrEP, drug treatment, or whatever support feels right for them at that time.
It’s about addressing trauma and mental health first or alongside other services, so people are better able to engage more actively in other parts of their healthcare.
What has been most rewarding about your work?
One moment that really stayed with me was when a study participant said, “thank you for treating me like a person.”
That really reinforced how important it is to create spaces where people feel respected and valued, and showed how meaningful that can be for participants.
What does good gender-responsive care look like to you?
For me, it involves recognising the specific experiences that women who use drugs are more likely to face, including exposure to violence and trauma, and building that understanding into how services are delivered.
For example, in some of our data we found that women who had experienced recent sexual violence were more likely to have an STI at baseline.
Even if someone does not disclose that experience, care should still be delivered in a way that is trauma-informed and responsive to those risks.
It also means making sure that research and analysis actually consider gender, so we can better understand what works for different groups.
What does being selected for this fellowship mean to you?
I think it is incredible that a program like this exists, and I feel really grateful to be part of it.
It is an opportunity to connect with people outside of my own discipline and to learn from others working in different areas, including clinical care and community-based work.
Building those relationships is really important, especially early in my research career.
What are you hoping to gain from the program?
I am hoping to continue building collaborations and connections with people who are doing similar work.
The best research is done in partnership, and having a network where you can share ideas, get feedback and develop projects together is really valuable.
I also see this as an opportunity to continue refining my research questions and thinking about how to translate findings into real-world impact.
What change would you most like to see in the next few years?
I would really like to see more strengths-based approaches in research.
A lot of research in this field focuses on risk and negative outcomes, but I think it is also important to look at improvements in quality of life, and to define research outcomes in ways that are meaningful to people who use drugs themselves.
That might include things like going back to school, starting treatment if that is what someone wants, or reconnecting with family and friends.
I would like to see more focus on how interventions can support these kinds of outcomes, as well as continuing to study infectious diseases and overdose. That shift needs to be guided by people with lived experience, who can help define what these outcomes should look like.
What do you wish more people understood about the women you work with?
My maybe, simple answer, is that women who use drugs are human beings that deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, like anyone else.
There can be a tendency to take a very top-down approach in research and service design, rather than really listening to what people want and need. But we, as researchers, need to create an environment in which women feel comfortable sharing their ideas and experiences. The women I have worked with are really invested in solving a lot of the same public health problems we want to address as researchers.
If we spend more time listening and engaging with women directly, we can develop services that are much more relevant, effective and respectful. It also shows women who use drugs that we value their expertise. Public health research has a way of connecting us to a larger purpose, and I want to share that experience with the research participants who may feel isolated because of their drug use. We couldn’t do this work without them!
The Fellowship program is supported by a grant from AbbVie, we thank them for their support of this program. Supporters have no control over content, tone, emphasis, allocation of funds, or selection of recipients.
