Tackling Addiction

This edited collection brings together the thoughts and experiences of researchers, practitioners and service users from the fields of health, addiction and criminal justice and centres on current developments in addiction policy and practice. Tackling Addiction examines what recovery, addiction and dependence really mean.

All across the United States, individuals, families, communities, and health care systems are struggling to cope with substance use, misuse, and substance use disorders. Substance misuse and substance use disorders have devastating effects, disrupt the future plans of too many young people, and all too often, end lives prematurely and tragically. Substance misuse is a major public health challenge and a priority for our nation to address. The effects of substance use are cumulative and costly for our society, placing burdens on workplaces, the health care system, families, states, and communities. The Report discusses opportunities to bring substance use disorder treatment and mainstream health care systems into alignment so that they can address a person's overall health, rather than a substance misuse or a physical health condition alone or in isolation. It also provides suggestions and recommendations for action that everyone-individuals, families, community leaders, law enforcement, health care professionals, policymakers, and researchers-can take to prevent substance misuse and reduce its consequences.

Estimates indicate that as many as 1 in 4 Americans will experience a mental health problem or will misuse alcohol or drugs in their lifetimes. These disorders are among the most highly stigmatized health conditions in the United States, and they remain barriers to full participation in society in areas as basic as education, housing, and employment. Improving the lives of people with mental health and substance abuse disorders has been a priority in the United States for more than 50 years. The Community Mental Health Act of 1963 is considered a major turning point in America's efforts to improve behavioral healthcare. It ushered in an era of optimism and hope and laid the groundwork for the consumer movement and new models of recovery. The consumer movement gave voice to people with mental and substance use disorders and brought their perspectives and experience into national discussions about mental health. However over the same 50-year period, positive change in American public attitudes and beliefs about mental and substance use disorders has lagged behind these advances. Stigma is a complex social phenomenon based on a relationship between an attribute and a stereotype that assigns undesirable labels, qualities, and behaviors to a person with that attribute. Labeled individuals are then socially devalued, which leads to inequality and discrimination. This report contributes to national efforts to understand and change attitudes, beliefs and behaviors that can lead to stigma and discrimination. Changing stigma in a lasting way will require coordinated efforts, which are based on the best possible evidence, supported at the national level with multiyear funding, and planned and implemented by an effective coalition of representative stakeholders. Ending Discrimination Against People with Mental and Substance Use Disorders: The Evidence for Stigma Change explores stigma and discrimination faced by individuals with mental or substance use disorders and recommends effective strategies for reducing stigma and encouraging people to seek treatment and other supportive services. It offers a set of conclusions and recommendations about successful stigma change strategies and the research needed to inform and evaluate these efforts in the United States.

The issue of 'recovery' has been increasingly prioritised by policymakers in recent years, but the meaning of the concept remains ambiguous. This edited collection brings together the thoughts and experiences of researchers, practitioners and service users from the fields of health, addiction and criminal justice and centres on current developments in addiction policy and practice. Tackling Addiction examines what recovery, addiction and dependence really mean, not only to the professional involved in rehabilitation but also to each individual client, and how 'coerced treatment' fails to take account of recovery as a long-term and ongoing process. Chapters cover the influence of crime and public health in UK drug policy; the ongoing emphasis on substitute prescribing; the role of recovery groups and communities; and gendered differences in the recovery process and implications for responses aimed at supporting women. Tackling Addiction will be essential reading for practitioners, researchers, policy makers and students in the fields of addiction, social care, psychology and criminal justice.

Through the vivid, true stories of five people who journeyed into and out of addiction, a renowned neuroscientist explains why the “disease model” of addiction is wrong and illuminates the path to recovery. The psychiatric establishment and rehab industry in the Western world have branded addiction a brain disease, based on evidence that brains change with drug use. But in The Biology of Desire, cognitive neuroscientist and former addict Marc Lewis makes a convincing case that addiction is not a disease, and shows why the disease model has become an obstacle to healing. Lewis reveals addiction as an unintended consequence of the brain doing what it’s supposed to do—seek pleasure and relief—in a world that’s not cooperating. Brains are designed to restructure themselves with normal learning and development, but this process is accelerated in addiction when highly attractive rewards are pursued repeatedly. Lewis shows why treatment based on the disease model so often fails, and how treatment can be retooled to achieve lasting recovery, given the realities of brain plasticity. Combining intimate human stories with clearly rendered scientific explanation, The Biology of Desire is enlightening and optimistic reading for anyone who has wrestled with addiction either personally or professionally.

Drugs are pervasive - pushed at school, at parties, in the street. Young people have to make choices about drugs as a fact of everyday life. Ideals, protest, demanding school work, the need for emotional intimacy, the natural desire to experiment, wanting to appear cool - all these factors can make drug taking seem attractive.

Named a 2013 Doody's Core Title! "Bushfield and DeFord offer us an excellent, informed and sensitive work that speaks both of the erosion of family systems due to addiction and the complications that arise when these victimized families face end-of-life care." --Illness, Crisis and Loss With a growing elderly population comes an increased need to recognize the medical and psychological needs of older adults suffering from addiction, particularly towards the end of life. This guide describes the challenges such persons and families present to those providing end-of-life care, and shows caregivers how to best negotiate these issues with clients and their families. The authors place special emphasis on the role of the family, presenting a cohesive family systems approach to end-of-life care. The book demonstrates how hospice teams can work collaboratively with the client and family to help alleviate some of the emotional stress and pain of addiction. The authors also present practical guidelines for recognizing and diagnosing addiction, determining appropriate interventions, and outlining special concerns for addicted people in end-of-life care. Key features: Identifies the known markers of substance abuse and appropriate interventions Provides guidance on how to address the physiological, psychological, and spiritual effects of addiction Details what every hospice team needs to know about family systems theory Discusses the emotional process of addicted clients, and what hospice teams, caregivers, and family members can do to help