Circles of Recovery: Self-Help Organizations for Addictions

by Keith Humphreys

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521176378
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/03/2011
Series:	International Research Monographs in the Addictions
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	240
Product dimensions:	5.98(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.55(d)

About the Author

DOB: April 11,
1966. Professor Humphreys has published more than 100 scientific articles, has received national and international awards for his work, and has served on expert consultant panels for The Center for Mental Health Services, The National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, The Office of Behavioral and Social Science Research, The Department of Veterans' Affairs, and The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. He has also served as a consultant on mental health related issues to agencies in other nations, including Spain, Canada, Ireland and post-apartheid South Africa. From March through June of 2002, he was on sabbatical at The White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, where he worked on policies concerning drug treatment, prevention and education.

Table of 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.

Editorial Reviews

"[Humphreys] has effectively focused the attention of an international audience on responses to a problem of global dimension. The best service this book can render is to open the way for the adoption of the self-help philosophy as an option everywhere and to stimulate an ongoing scientific evaluation of its effectiveness." Isidore Obot & Shekhar Saxena, Bulletin of the World Health Organization

"[An] important and useful book...Read this book." Klaus Mäkelä, Nordisk Alkohol & Narkotikatidskrift

"The author is a well-known figure in the fields of evaluation research and the treatment of substance dependence. He has effectively focused the attention of an international audience on responses to a problem of global dimension." Bulletin of the World Health Organization

"A must read for all addiction professionals as well as all other mental health professionals who encounter substance abuse problems in their clients." Psychological Medicine

"I highly recommend this book." Psychiatric Services

From the Publisher