A new report exploring mothers in addiction recovery was launched last week by the School of Nursing and Midwifery at Trinity College Dublin. The report: Mothers in Addiction Recovery Rising: The Will and the Way represents a deliberate shift in how research is approached and conducted. The team worked alongside mothers as co-authors of the report to explore how systems can be advanced with mothers in addiction recovery, rather than for, on or about them. It emerged from a desire to centre both the lived (past) and living (current, evolving) experiences of mothers involved, particularly as  mother-women navigating addiction recovery and acknowledging that they bring not only insight but essential wisdom needed to shape more responsive and humane systems.

At its core, the research was motivated by  a desire to ground systemic change in real, embodied experience rather than abstract concepts and a recognition of the need to move beyond ‘tokenistic’ inclusion to embedded, meaningful relational leadership by those with lived experience.

The authors emphasise that services and systems must listen more deeply, respond with compassion, and take time to understand the real and often complex realities and situations of women’s lives. Empathy and understanding were named by mother-women as the most needed qualities in recovery (noting this is about services but also with families and communities too).

Key insights

The report’s insights share what mother-women in addiction recovery felt would be important to focus on. Key insights include: 

  • Recovery is relational and deeply gendered: Mother-women face unique, intersectional challenges that are inseparable from their caregiving identities.
  • Lived and living experience must move from the margins to the centre: This wisdom is not supplementary - it is foundational.
  • Empathy and understanding are vital but cannot be mandated: These must be cultivated through relationships, time, and care.
  • Systems are enacted in relationship: transformation requires more than technical fixes, but shifts in how we are with one another.
  • Recovery is more than giving up substances -  it’s about reconnection, identity, and belonging.

Louise McCulloch PhD Candidate, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin and co-author of the report said:

“When asked about what mattered most, the mother-women in the co-inquiry shared ‘empathy and understanding’. However, these are not ‘things’ that can be mandated or instructed or recommended. Rather, they are relational capacities that can only emerge in the complexity of human relationships and when people feel seen and heard. This report seeks to tend and open such space: to open to listen and grow in understanding together. Change is not only about redesigning systems; it is about reweaving relationships. And systems will only ever be as compassionate as the people who enact them. It is in this everyday space, in how we meet, how we listen, how we stand beside one another today, that the seeds of transformation are sown.”

Explaining the importance of their own involvement in the research, mother-women and co-authors Gina and Fiona explained:

"I took part because I’ve been through it. I know how hard it is to get support when you’re a mother in addiction. I wanted to speak up for the women who feel like no one sees them. This is about making services fair and supportive, so women aren’t left to struggle alone. Change won’t happen unless we start talking about what really needs to be fixed.” (Gina)

"I took part in the research to speak for women like me and to show other women, other mothers like me, that recovery is possible. It's not perfect, not easy but possible.  Even when you've lost everything, even when you don't believe in yourself yet, it can still be done." (Fiona)

Looking ahead, Louise McCulloch concluded by outlining the most pressing areas in which the team would like Government to bring about change in for mother-women to support their recovery. They are:

  • Recognise care, trust, and relationship as central to functioning systems: Develop policy that prioritises relational accountability over bureaucratic control.
  • Address the gendered and systemic nature of recovery: Including stigma, inadequate childcare, and fragmented services.
  • Shift from fixed outcomes to relational responsiveness: Build systems that can listen and adapt as lives and needs evolve.
  • Create space for empathy and understanding to take root: These cannot be delivered by mandate, but can flourish through long-term relational commitment.

Download and read the report here: Mothers in Addiction Recovery Rising: The Will and the Way