Self-help organizations across the world have attracted millions of individuals seeking to address addiction problems with drugs or alcohol. This book provides an integrative, international review of research that focuses on how these organizations affect individual members and whether self-help groups and formal health care systems can work together to combat substance abuse. In addition, it offers practical strategies for individual clinicians and treatment systems on how to interact with self-help organizations.
Contents Acknowledgements; 1. Definitions, scope, and origin of the health-related self-help group movement; 2. An international tour of addiction-related mutual help organizations; 3. Does self-help group participation produce positive substance abuse, psychiatric, and medical outcomes?; 4. A different perspective on change in self-help organizations: spirituality, identity, life stories, friendship networks, and politicization; 5. Government, health care organization, and clinical interactions with self-help organizations; Epilogue: Summing up, moving forward; References; Index. |
