Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

E-Therapy As A Means For Addressing Barriers To Substance Use Disorder Treatment For Persons Who Are Deaf, Dennis Moore, Debra Guthmann, Nikki Rogers, Susan Frake, Jared Embree

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Persons who are deaf face a number of challenges with regard to vulnerability for substance use disorders. Moreover, accessible treatment for this condition can be difficult to establish and maintain. The Deaf community may be one of the most disenfranchised groups in America in regard to appropriate access to substance use disorder (SUD) prevention and treatment services. This article reviews findings related to substance use disorder and treatment for this condition among persons who are deaf. It also reviews a promising approach for addressing treatment needs via e-therapy, and it highlights the challenges and concerns regarding e-therapy for this population. …

Using Social Construction Theory As A Foundation For Macro-Level Interventions In Communities Impacted By Hiv And Addictions, David Allen Patterson, Robert H. Keefe

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Many professionals working with people living with HIV and alcohol and other drug addictions rely heavily on micro and mezzo-level interventions. The authors argue that although these approaches are effective for helping people living with some social problems they are too narrow for working effectively with HIV-positive and alcohol and other drug-addicted individuals. The authors use social construction theory to analyze the social problems of HIV/AIDS and addictions and make recommendations for macro-level interventions that may help curtail the dual problems of HIV and addictions.

Social Welfare Policy And Public Assistance For Low-Income Substance Abusers: The Impact Of 1996 Welfare Reform Legislation On The Economic Security Of Former Supplemental Security Income Drug Addiction And Alcoholism Beneficiaries, Sean R. Hogan, George J. Unick, Richard Speiglman, Jean C. Norris

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Prior to January 1, 1997, individuals with drug- or alcohol-related disabilities could qualify for federal public assistance through the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) program. During the welfare reforms of the Clinton administration, this policy was changed, resulting in lost income and health care benefits for many lowincome substance abusers. This paper examines the historical underpinnings to the elimination of drug addiction and alcoholism (DA&A) as qualifjing impairments for SSI disability payments. Following this, empirical evidence is presented on the effect this policy change had on the subsequent economic security of former SSI DA&A beneficiaries. Findings indicate that study participants who …

Globalization And Drug And Alcohol Use In Rural Communities In Nigeria: A Case Study, Charles Fiki

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper presents an exploratory study of alcohol and drug use in two rural communities in Plateau State, Nigeria. The aim is to raise awareness of the rural alcohol and drug problem. The paper examines the patterns of alcohol consumption and drug use, and their perceived functions for substance use among rural farmers in Nigeria. The study shows the common use of marijuana and alcohol in addition to prescription drugs. There is also evidence of multiple or combinational drug use. Pleasure and relaxation emerged as the major reasons for drug and alcohol use. Factors influencing alcohol and drug use are …

Review Of Handbook Of Drug Abuse Prevention: Theory Science And Practice. Zili Sloboda & William J. Bukowski (Eds). Reviewed By Sean R. Hogan., Sean R. Hogan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Zili Sloboda and William J. Bukoski (Eds.), Handbook of Drug Abuse Prevention: Theory, Science, and Practice. New York: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003. $150.00 hardcover.

Review Of Addiction Treatment: A Strengths Perspective. Katherine Van Wormer & Diane Rae Davis. Reviewed By Mike Gorman., Mike Gorman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review of Van Wormer, Katherine and Davis, Diane Rae, Addiction Treatment A Strength's Perspective, Pacific Grove, CA: Thomson Brooks Cole, 2003. $ 51.92 papercover.

Resiliency Factors Related To Substance Use/Resistance: Perceptions Of Native Adolescents Of The Southwest, Margaret A. Waller, Scott K. Okamoto, Bart Miles, Donna E. Hurdle

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This exploratory, qualitative study examined risk and protective factors influencing drug and alcohol use and/or resistance of Native youth in the Southwest. Thirty-two Native middle school students participated in 10 focus groups that explored their experiences with alcohol and drugs in their school and reservation communities. The findings indicate a complex interaction of both risk and protective factors related to substance use. Respondents' cousins and siblings, in particular, played a key role in their decisions to use or resist drugs. Implications for social work practice are discussed.

The Lived Experience Of Welfare Reform In Drug-Using Welfare-Needy Households In Inner-City New York, Eloise Dunlap, Andrew Golub, Bruce D. Johnson

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Welfare reform has transformed a needs-based family income support into temporary assistance for persons entering the workforce. This paper uses observations from an ethnographic study covering the period from 1995- 2001 to examine the impact on drug-using welfare-needy households in inner-city New York. The analysis suggests that studies may underestimate the extent to which substance use is associated with welfare problems. Nearly all of these already distressed households lost their AFDC/TANF benefits, had difficulty with work programs, and were having more difficulty covering expenses. The conclusion highlights ways to better study this population and policy initiatives that could help them …

The Disease Model Of Alcoholism: A Kuhnian Paradigm, Brian E. Bride, Larry Nackerud

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Despite the fact that the disease model of alcoholism has lost its status as paradigm in international circles, the alcoholism research and treatment community in the United States maintains steadfast allegiance to the tenets of the disease model. The disease model and the related treatment goal of abstinence continue to overwhelmingly dominate the treatment of alcoholism in the U.S. Critics have suggested that financial and political motives have served to maintain the dominance of the disease model, despite findings that violate its basic tenets. This paper presents an alternative explanation of the reluctance of the alcoholism treatment community to relinquish …

Review Of Addictions And Native Americans. Lawrence Armand French. Reviewed By Michael Gorman, San Jose State University., Michael Gorman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Book review for Lawrence Armand French, Addictions and Native Americans. Westport, CT: Praeger Publications, 2000. $59.95 hardcover.

Coherency Among Substance Abuse Models, Stephen Kauffman, John Poulin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Social policy decisions are often made based upon socially constructed models of human behavior. As such, understanding the social constructions in a given policy area is of utmost importance. This study examines three competing models within the substance abuse area: the moral model, the disease model, and the biopsychosocial model. Utilizing survey data from a random sample telephone survey of 1,019 residents of Delaware County, Pennsylvania, the study examines a) the degree to which individual models are internally consistent between beliefs about causes and beliefs about solutions, b) whether the assumptions in competing models are in fact different; and c) …

Defining Success: The Politics Of Evaluation In Alcohol And Drug Abuse Treatment Programs, James L. Wolk, David J. Hartmann, William P. Sullivan

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Alcohol and drug abuse treatment programs must respond to several important stakeholders or beneficiaries of services who have an investment in how success is defined. Utilizing data from recent statewide studies of treatment outcomes of alcohol and drug abuse services, this paper concludes that a strict adherence to an abstinence-only model of success, rigidly adopted by many in the treatment industry is counterproductive. Multiple measures of success are essential to fully understand and assess a changing model of intervention in the chemical dependency field.

Social Work, Social Science And The Disease Concept: New Directions For Addiction Treatment, Douglas Frans

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The perception of alcoholism and other substance abuse disorders as disease entities is a view ardently defended not only among chemical dependency professionals but, increasingly, by the general public as well. Over the past two decades, this perspective has also become so ensconced within the addiction treatment industry that alternative interventions are almost nonexistent even though evidence of their effectiveness is available (Miller & Hester, 1989). And yet, "no leading research authorities accept the classic disease concept" (Fingarette, 1988, p. 3). Competing views are generally characterized as irresponsible, and their sponsors summarily dismissed as dangerously uninformed by disease view proponents …

Racial Differences In The Use Of Drugs And Alcohol Among Low Income Youth And Young Adults, John E. Poulin

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This study examines the use of drugs and alcohol among 284 youth and young adults of a low income urban community. Racial differences in the use of drugs and alcohol are examined for four age groups between 12 and 25.

Overall, the findings show significant racial differences in the use of both drugs and alcohol. Black youth and young adults have lower drug use and alcohol use rates than their white peers. The differences hold for the four age groups examined. Implications of the findings for drug prevention programs are discussed.

Differential Perception And Adolescent Drinking In The United States: Preliminary Considerations, John B. Harms, James L. Wolk

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This paper addresses adolescent drinking from a perspective very similar to Sutherland's differential association theory. Drinking occurs when positive perceptions of drinking outweigh or outnumber negative ones. Our research focuses on images of drinking communicated by rationalized sources organized specifically to shape perceptions of drinking. We call these organizations "agencies" and assess their impact on perceptions of drinking. It is our contention that the political economic context of the United States in which these agencies function is such that positive images of drinking outnumber and outweigh negative ones, and that this is an important factor contributing to adolescent drinking.

Reconsidering Drug Involvement Among Youth And Young Adults: Implications For Targeted Primary Prevention, Mark W. Fraser

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

The purpose of this; paper is to review two dominant social perspectives on the etiology of substance abuse among youths and young adults-the stage and risk factor outlooks-and to discuss them in light of recent demographic and ecological research. The differential demography of drug abuse strongly suggests that the environmental context influences the use and abuse of substances. In an era of great public concern about substance abuse, the use of individually-focused perspectives appears to have resulted in person-centered skills training programs and "say no" media campaigns. Consideration of community-level factors in the etiology of drug abuse permits the identification …

Measuring Domestic Violence In An Alcoholic Population, Larry R. Livingston

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

A survey of 107 adults receiving residential treatment for substance abuse was conducted, to determine characteristics of domestic violence in relationships. The survey incorporated instruments to measure the degree of substance abuse (the Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test or MAST) as well as types and frequencies of domestic violence (the Conflict Tactics Scale or CTS-N). Findings are then compared to a national study of 2143 normals (Straus, Gelles, & Steinmetz, 1980) to ascertain differences in domestic violence.

Findings indicate that 83% of alcoholic subjects behaved violently in past relationships, compared to 28% of the normal population. Fifty-five percent of the alcoholics …

The Sociology Of Alcoholism Counseling: A Social Worker's Perspective, Katherine Van Wormer

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

An occupation - alcoholism counseling - strives to gain professional status. Still a field largely dominated by counselors who derive their status more from personal attributes - the fact of being recovering alcoholics - rather than from achievement of impersonally applied standards, chemical dependency counseling is in a state of flux. This sociological analysis examines recent developments in the field. Special emphasis is on roles for social workers.

Scientific Ideologies And Conceptions Of Drinking Behavior And Alcoholism, Keith M. Kilty

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Conventional explanations of drinking behavior and alcoholism suffer from serious inadequacies, due in large part to their unquestioning acceptance of certain assumptions about the effects of alcohol on human behavior that are rooted in moral prescriptions. That is, most contemporary models of drinking behavior assume that the consumption of alcohol leads to the loss of inhibitions or self-control, ultimately leading to behaviors that are not predictable by either the drinker or society. This perspective has become so deeply ingrained in the social scientific literature that it is no longer even perceived as hypothetical; instead, it has taken on the character …

A Contest Of Values: A Cultural History Of Approaches Toward Alcohol, John E. Tropman

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

This is a smaller version of a manuscript prepared for the special seminar on Alcohol and Social Policy, School of Social Work, University of Michigan, Winter 1978. The assistance of Kim Hoa Granville and Craig King is gratefully acknowledged. The support and encouragement of Dr. Edith Gomberg also needs to be recognized; without it, this paper never would have materialized.

The Transition To Medicalized Views: Alcoholism And Social Workers, H. Paul Chalfant, Dorinda N. Noble

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

More deviant behaviors in our society are coming to be defined as medical rather than criminal, so that more control of such behavior is coming under medical and helping professions. Some conditions, e.g., alcoholism, seem to be caught "in between," with serious consequences. This paper looks at social worker perception of the alcoholic as "sick," in terms of a sociological conception of sickness as a social role. A bi-mdal distribution is found for acceptance and nonacceptance. Also, a significant number are ambivalent. The implications of this lack of consensus are discussed.

Heroin--Myths And Knowledge: Impact On Public Policy, Robert Salmon

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

Public Policy in the United States towards the heroin user and addict has been punitive as well as unsuccessful in deterring drug use or in treatment of the addict. Bias, myths, and prejudices have influenced our policy stance and have made heroin addiction a more serious problem than it otherwise would have been. This is explicated in the article, and contrasted with the British system which in attitude and practice tends to view the addict as ill rather than evil.

Client Costs And Early Discontinuance From A Community-Based Treatment Program, Ronald A. Feldman, Mortimer Goodman, John S. Wodarski, Wallace J. Gingerich

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

In social work circles client withdrawal from a treatment program commonly has been labeled as "discontinuance". Discontinuance rates have been inordinately high for both casework and group work endeavors, ranging in some instances to 59Z of all clients following the first interview (Aronson and Overall, 1966; Empey and Erickson, 1972; Goldstein, Heller, and Sechrest, 1966; Levinger, 1960; Overall and Aronson, 1963). Discontinuance represents an obvious and essential concern for social work for one overarching reason, to wit, treatment interventions cannot be implemented should the client(s) withdraw from the therapeutic relationship. Additionally, as some investigators have shown, discontinuance represents a focal …