Substance abuse treatment: a case study

Abstract

All rights reserved. This work 1nay not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without the pennission of th e author.pecial thanks to tny dear fri ends Mary and Wayne and or course my family for all of their encouragement and support throughout thi endeavor. AB TRACTSubstance abuse is ue have pla&ruecl n1odem society for decades and arc atnong the tnost comtnon and erious current social and health concerns. The personal, socia l and financial costs of ub tance abu e in North America arc alanning. Thi project, i. grounded in a search of the literature relating to ub tance abu c trcattncnt. both hi tori cal and contc1nporary, and explores dominant attitudes toward ubstance abu e, both pa t and curTcnt. While this project contains a historical overvie\v of ubstance abu e treatment approaches in North A1nerica, the tnajor focu s i on the biop ycho. ocial/biop ychosocialspiritual approach, which is currently the official treatment approach u ed by Alcohol and Drug ervices in British Columbia. Furthcnnore, it is based on a case exatnple, from the writer's practice experience, of a youth and her strugg1es to overcotne her addiction.The retrospective ca e analysi of the youth' truggle with overcoming her addiction, coupled with the exatninations of two Alcohol and Drug Servjccs trcatn1ent progratns, aide in uncovering the litnitations possessed by n1ainstrea1n substance abuse treatment approaches. The limitations of 1nain tream sub tance abu e treatment approaches are examined fro1n a social developtnent perspective. The aim of this project is to gain a better understanding of the limitations of tnainstreatn substance abu e treatment approaches, especially in reference to clients from low socio-econotnic status. The social developn1ent approach, the critical lens through which the analysis is conducted, exposes the inherent micro bias that exists within mainstremn treatment approaches and how this works to limit their etfectivenes . The hope is that the findings of this study 111ay assist in the improven1ent and incrca ed long tenn efTecti veness of substance abuse treatment.A b. tract AcknO\\ lcdgrnentThi~ Masters of ocial Work Project, cxmntning the litnitations of n1a1nstrcan1 substance abuse treatn1ent approach e. , ari e frorn tnany yea rs of working with at n~k yo uth, rn any of who rn have been hattltng addictions. It 1. n1y finn COD\ iction that Inany of these youth tn ay ha ve been more successful in their battles if treatn1ent had also addressed the rnacro issues which these indiv1dual. struggled with \Vhich contributed to thc1r drug abuse. I hope that the findings of this project wtll as. ist tn increa ing the awareness and understanding of the needs or addicted indi\ iduals fron1 lo\v socio-econotnic status in their treattnent. I belie\ c that incorporating a more tnacro focu . into main trearn substance abuse trcatn1ent may prove to he quite beneficial for clients 111 reachtng thetr treat1nent goal".My thank~ and appreciation go to Profc~~or Glen Schmidt. my \llS\V ProJect Supcrvt5...