In my master's thesis, I researched the needs of homeless women who use illicit drugs and are involved in the harm reduction programme Safe House Stigma. In the first part I presented the phenomenon of the open scene in Ljubljana, as a consequence of the lack of spaces for daily socialising and drug use. In the theoretical part I also focused on the specificities of women's homelessness and the causes that influence homelessness. I started from a harm reduction paradigm and a user perspective, because I was mainly interested in the opinions, wishes and needs of women users. Finally, I defined social work in the field of drugs and the role of social workers. In the empirical part, I presented the findings of the research through qualitative data analysis. The main focus of the master thesis is on the needs of female users and the existing harm reduction programmes on offer, and what needs to be changed in the support process to ensure that services respond to the needs of female users. I also looked at survival strategies, or how they cope in difficult situations. Finally, I focused on the formal and informal support networks they can use to meet their needs.
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