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This article presents an interview with Shelly A. Wiechelt, Assistant Professor at the School of Social Work at the University of Maryland. Wiechelt is asked to describe the National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACoA). She mentions that the NACoA is founded on the theory that substance use disorders are influenced by many factors including sociocultural and biological influences.

This article presents an interview with Wendy Weil, a substance abuse counselor who works with substance abusers in the criminal justice system. When asked about how she would describe working with mandated substance abuse clients, she describes her job duties at the Lutheran Medical Center in New York as being challenging. Weil believes that whether patients are in a mandated or non mandated treatment setting, some will be successful and some will not. She comments on the treatment goals that are set in her center.

This article presents an interview with Flavio F. Marsiglia, the Principal Investigator of the Drug Resistance Strategies project, specializing in drug abuse and HIV prevention particularly in Latinos/as. Marsiglia is asked what considerations there are for researchers in deciding to pursue federal funding.

The article presents an interview with Ellen Morehouse, as well as discusses student assistance programs which work to prevent adolescent drug and substance abuse. Several program models are available to counselors that will help in their substance abuse programs, including the core team model in which school staff receive training but are assisted by student teams. Moorehouse emphasizes the fact that her program and others help to prevent substance abuse from the beginning and that they are easily accessible to teenagers and their families. She also recommends to anyone that wants to start a similar program to make sure that the principal and superintendent of their school fully support and help in the program's creation.

It is important for clinicians to develop cultural competency skills in any cross-cultural setting where a working knowledge of the client's culture is important to the delivery of services. Twelve Step recovery programs represent a distinct culture, where members have developed their own set of norms, behaviors and even language. An understanding of this culture is important to any clinician working with clients who may be referred to and/or are members of a Twelve Step group. This article defines cultural competency, applies this to the culture that has developed around Twelve Step groups, and provides information to familiarize clinicians to these cultural norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of cultural competency skills is important for a clinician in any cross-cultural setting where a working knowledge of the client's culture is important to the delivery of services. This paper suggests that incorporating attendance at Twelve Step recovery programs may begin to facilitate cultural competency for students, or at the very least provide exposure to the culture through a cross-cultural experience. From the perspective of cultural competency, an understanding of the culture of Twelve Step groups is important to any clinician working with clients who may be referred to, and/or are members of a Twelve Step group. This article defines cultural competency, applies this to the culture that has developed around Twelve Step groups, and provides a model of integrating Twelve Step meeting attendance into addictions coursework as a mechanism for development of cultural responsiveness with addicted clients. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This pilot study explores issues of culture and alcohol and other drug use in relation to substance abuse prevention with high-risk youth, with a particular interest in Latinos/as and acculturation. Many of the prominent prevention studies are school based, missing some of the youth at very highest risk for alcohol and drug use and abuse. Consequently, this study was conducted in community settings with youth from high-risk neighborhoods and environmental conditions including a homeless youth shelter, an alternative learning setting, and a low-income community program. The data indicated a high lifetime prevalence of drug use (over 80% for Whites and Latinos for beer, wine, liquor, and marijuana), with consistently lower prevalence rates observed among African-Americans. In addition, the study found significant ethnic differences in substance use (last 30 days) in the sample (median age = 16), with African-Americans reporting significantly lower incidence of marijuana and cocaine use (p < .05) than other youth. Implications for prevention, intervention and future research are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores how Mexican-American youth experience stress and trauma in a variety of arenas. Such youth utilize their energy, creativity, and resilience in order to cope with cultural tensions that arise from acculturative processes, role conflicts with family and peers, school challenges, and identity formation processes. Violence, in the form of internalized colonialism, external oppression, and actual violent acts (e.g., gang fights, suicides, and physical and/or sexual abuse), can be a major risk factor for negative outcomes such as substance abuse. However, this ethnographic study demonstrates that many Mexican-American adolescents navigate stressors and traumas in such a way that transforms the potentially distressing events into life-affirming rites of passage. This article explores these issues through qualitative data analyses from a study of Mexican-American youth in a Southwestern city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the impact of managed care on the substance abuse service system by reviewing the current status of the programs that were among the elite service providers in 1988. A survey was conducted assessing the status of the one hundred centers touted as "the 100 best treatment centers for alcoholism and drug abuse" (Sunshine & Wright, 1988). Findings include the following: Almost a third of these centers (31 %) are no longer providing services, the majority of the programs who reported data continue to provide services primarily at a residential level of care (92%); however occupancy rates haye dropped, the number of annual inpatient admissions have risen, and the length of treatment episodes has significantly decreased. In 1988, almost all (97.5%) facilities adhered to the 28-day treatment regiment, as evidenced by average treatment episodes of 26 days or longer. However, in 2001, the majority of programs (57.5%) reported treatment episodes of 25 days or less. While these facilities represent a fraction of the number of facilities that provide substance abuse services, they do exemplify elite programs that should be insulated from economic troubles, and help to document the changes that have occurred in the delivery system. Awareness of these changes is important for every social worker that advocates for substance abuse services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an analysis of literature on substance abuse among U.S. Latinos. High fertility and high immigration rates have made Latinos the largest minority in the U.S. Therefore, alcohol and illicit drug use within this population give reason for concern. Beginning in early adolescence, Latinos and native Americans lead the nation in alcohol and illicit drug use. They also have a high need for alcohol and illicit drug treatment compared to Whites and African-Americans. Even though family and peers have been shown to play an important role in the etiology of substance abuse across ethnic groups, research indicates that important differences exist within ethnic groups on these and other factors. In the article, research concerning ethnic differences has been reviewed in order to gain an understanding of the patterns and trajectories of substance use within the Latino community. Prevention and treatment interventions specific to Latinos have been described, and gaps in the literature are noted. Finally, implications of the current research findings for social workers and recommendations for future research have been discussed.

Presents a preface to the March 2005 issue of the "Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions," on the substance abuse behaviors of Latino populations in the U.S. and the effectiveness of culturally relevant drug treatment and prevention services.

The purpose of this article is to present the Harm Reduction Model and its potential as a framework from which to provide prevention services for adolescents. While it may be uncomfortable for service providers to acknowledge, the vast majority of adolescents in the United States will have used mood-altering substances sometime during their teen years. While non-abstinence-based prevention services have existed for some time, they are not without controversy. This article proposes Harm Reduction as a complimentary or alternative perspective for work with adolescents for whom abstinence may not be immediately possible and/or may not be a realistic outcome for services. This article outlines the abstinence-oriented and Harm Reduction perspectives, as well as the Stages of Change model; utilizing empirical support, it then discusses how these perspectives can work together in social work practice in the adolescent substance abuse prevention arena. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article presents a postmodern, feminist framework as a foundation for a social work student field unit with women inmates in the corrections system. Feminist pedagogical methods were developed and implemented for this field unit and, once trained, the students utilized feminist social work skills within the jail environment. The case study illustrates the field unit design, student learning processes, and examples of student interventions. In addition to becoming skillful clinicians, student interns became social change agents within the corrections system. Implications for micro, meso, and macro levels of social work practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project examined th effectiveness of a psychoeducational grief group intervention for AIDS-related death and bereavement. Family members and friends who had lost a loved one to HIV/AIDS participated in a six-week, time-limited bereavement group. Depression, anxiety, and grief reactions were analyzed using standardized instruments. Qualitative methods were also employed. Findings suggest that a psychoeducational bereavement group may be an effective intervention for caregivers who have unresolved emotional issues related to the loss of a loved one due to HIV/AIDS. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Recent federal legislation bans receipt of cash and food assistance to individuals convicted of a drug felony. This study examines the different definitions and methodologies used in estimating substance abuse among welfare recipients. It then analyzes a stratified sample of predominantly low-income young mothers on the basis of welfare receipt and consequences associated with alcohol and drug use. Results indicate that young mothers who received welfare for more than two years had lower reported drug use consequences than mothers who never used welfare or relied on it for a period of less than two years. Variables measuring consequences of drug use were not found to mediate length of time on welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article describes and critiques the pilot phase of a project in which an ethnically diverse group of students from a large southwestern urban high school created culturally based substance abuse prevention videos for urban middle school students. The rationale evolved from research that suggested that a peer-created, culturally-specific approach to drug abuse prevention would be more effective than would programming created by adults operating from a "so-called" culturally-neutral" perspective. The dual perspective of this article includes both the field experiment per se and the data collected, using a case study perspective. Overarching themes of culture and power are discussed, as are the elements of age and gender. Implications extending beyond the pilot offer insights for researchers and practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]