Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 208-221). Also available on the Internet.

Since the Narcotic Addiction Foundation of British Columbia opened its doors in 1958 it has been successful in contacting a large number of drug addicts in the Vancouver area. There has, however, been some concern expressed by the agency treatment staff over the high ratio of patients who discontinue treatment after the first few contacts. The authors of this exploratory study have undertaken the task of determining some of the factors which might influence the drug addict's continued treatment involvement at the Narcotic Addiction Foundation. This study sets the base for a projected three year study of the stated problem. The study was divided into two phases. The first is the retrospective study which utilizes the Paulus Study (55) conducted in 1964. Though pursued for different reasons, this study provides a convenient, and suitable sample of 105 addicts (50 male and 55 female) for the present research. The immediate aim of this retrospective study is to identify certain factors which are discernible at the time the addict presents himself for treatment and to relate them to the addict's subsequent treatment involvement. The second phase, a longitudinal study, will utilize the specific factors which emerge from the retrospective study as being significantly related to the addict's continued treatment involvement. The longitudinal study, to further prove the validity of each factor, has been projected to cover a twelve month period from the time the addict first presents himself for treatment. The results of the study point out some of the difficulties and areas of concern regarding the treatment of the drug addict and some recommendations pertaining to follow-up studies of this kind. While the drug addict exhibits some characteristics similar to clients of any agency, he is unique in many ways. The factors discerned in this study clarify some of this uniqueness and, it is hoped, (using the significant factors brought out,) that they will eventually lead to better prognostication of the addict's future success for continued treatment involvement. It should prove to be especially helpful to the staff of the Narcotic Addiction Foundation and other agencies geared to treating the drug addict in guiding changes in the treatment program and organization. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate

Thesis (M.S.W.)--Smith College School for Social Work, Northampton, Mass., 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-75).

This dissertation examines Puerto Rican therapeutic communities – resource-poor mutual-aid collectives that have flourished over the past five decades, despite being heavily criticized by human rights groups for using unwaged labor as a method to treat addiction. The persistence of these communities, which are spreading rapidly across Latin America, is widely ascribed in international media to state neglect. I conducted a year of ethnographic research in Puerto Rico to understand why labor therapies thrive, and what these approaches are intended to achieve among those who practice them. Challenging the argument that labor therapies are the simple result of the state failing to provide alternatives, my research shows that during the last half century therapeutic communities have been successively recruited to serve a variety of distinct and sometimes competing interests. My examination of the multiple, contested, and sometimes-converging projects that inhere within this therapeutic regime shows that these organizations have variously served as entrepreneurial projects of informal enterprise, existential projects of redemption, state projects of containment, and shunt-valves for relieving burdens of dependency from straining kinship systems. Their endurance, therefore, not only reflects their capacity to patch the cracks of multiple faltering systems (including employment, corrections, family), but it also reflects their protean vulnerability to appropriation: that is, the ease with which they are co-opted by other actors for alternative utilities. Based on eight months of intensive participant observation in one therapeutic community, La Casita, where I explored the cultural logics and meanings of labor therapies, I argue that “drug treatment” here is not centrally geared towards “treating addiction.” Instead, La Casita’s therapeutic practices of labor therapy, time-discipline, prayer, and internal work are more instructively read as social technologies through which men who are excluded from the labor market and estranged from kinship ties seek to cultivate an alternative masculinity that restores their sense of worth. The “socially useful” masculinity under construction here, based on a performance of work, responsibility, and duty, offers unemployed men an alternative way to claim the dignity and social membership of work.

This study was intended to determine the architectural characteristics of a built environment that makes a positive contribution to the effective treatment of addictions and associated mental illnesses. Buildings affect people both physically and psychologically: Architects and interior designers create retail spaces that increase sales, restaurants that stimulate appetite and offices that maximise productivity. But do they design mental health-care facilities that improve treatment and recovery? Surely, given the nature of its function, this building typology is the most deserving of attention with regard to the subject of ‘environmental psychology’. On the contrary however, mental health-care has a history of inadequacy when it comes to the buildings that have been constructed to facilitate it: During the middle of the twentieth century – particularly in Great Britain and the United States of America – state ‘mental asylums’ housed hundreds of people in oppressive, inhumane buildings, remote from their communities. Derelict asylums bear testimony to the ‘de-institutionalism’ movement that followed, favouring out-patient care in the community context. On the other hand however, homeless, destitute addicts and mentally ill individuals tell of the shortcomings of community-based care. Current medical insights have now led to a new concept of ‘balanced-care’, which calls for the integration of in-patient and out-patient treatment. This new approach provides an opportunity for architects to re-define the mental healthcare facility – to humanise the institution and create treatment environments that contribute positively to recovery. The purpose of this study was therefore to establish a sound understanding of the unique needs of this particular user group, to interpret the implications of these needs with regard to the design of the treatment environment, and to assess the appropriateness of existing facilities in terms of these findings. The research was carried out by way of consultation with local mental health-care professionals, a review of existing literature on the subject, and relevant precedent and case studies. The outcome was a set of principles and criteria to inform the design of a new addiction and mental health clinic in Durban. / Thesis (M.Arch.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2011.

Thesis (Dr. P.H.)--University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, 1992. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 57-62).

Sammanfattning Syfte och frågeställningar Syftet med studien är att undersöka den fysiska aktivitetens betydelse för den psykiska och fysiska hälsan i samband med behandling hos personer i tidigare narkotikamissbruk kombinerat med samsjuklighet. - Hur påverkar fysisk aktivitet den upplevda fysiska och psykiska hälsan hos män i åldern 23-29 i tidigare narkotikamissbruk kombinerat med samsjuklighet(1)? - Hur upplever vårdarna att fysisk aktivitet påverkar klienternas generella mående efter utförd fysisk aktivitet? - Hur ser vårdarna på fysisk aktivitet som en del av behandling för tidigare narkotikamissbruk kombinerat med samsjuklighet? Metod I denna studie ingick 8 personer, fyra män i åldern 23-29 år som befann sig i behandling, och fyra anställda, varav två män och två kvinnor i åldern 27-76 år. Behandlingshemmet som studien genomfördes på erbjuder behandling för personer med olika former av missbruk och psykiska diagnoser. Den fysiska aktivitet som utförs på behandlingshemmet är gymträning och promenader. Semistrukturerade intervjuer genomfördes med både klienter och anställda om deras uppfattning kring fysisk och psykisk hälsa i samband med fysisk aktivitet i behandlingsprogrammet. Resultat Fysisk aktivitet kan positivt påverka främst den fysiska men också den psykiska hälsan hos män i åldern 23-29 år med tidigare narkotikamissbruk kombinerat med samsjuklighet. Enligt vårdarna påverkar den fysiska aktiviteten klienterna positivt till bland annat ett lugn och dämpad rastlöshet. Den fysiska aktiviteten ses även som en positiv faktor inom behandling då vårdarna anser att den kan tänkas hjälpa mot avhållsamhet, struktur i vardagen och mer samarbetsvilja. Slutsats Människor som tidigare haft narkotikamissbruk i kombination med samsjuklighet har uttryckligen beskrivit välmående, lugn och ett lättat sinne i samband med fysisk aktivitet. Dock kan studiens resultat inte alls appliceras på hela populationen i denna kategori. (1) Samsjuklighet saknar en tydlig definition, men kan innebära att klienten har komplexa vårdbehov och kan även innebära en funktionsnedsättning i kombination med missbruk, om somatiska sjukdomar finns hos klienten (Aleris 2017-05-07)

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-03, Section: B, page: 1572. Adviser: Lu-Yu Hwang. Includes bibliographical references.

The motivation for this study is the increase of treatment needs of heroin dependents at SANCA, (South African National Council of Alcohol and Drug Abuse) Witbank. SANCA Witbank wants to ensure that the most effective treatment can be supplied. Research goals are to:  Do a literature study of out-patient treatment programmes.  Assess the needs of heroin out-patient dependents with regard to out-patient treatment programmes.  Make recommendations with regard to out-patient treatment programmes for heroin dependents. It was an exploratory research subject and the data collection methods were qualitative and quantitative. Interview schedules were used as research tools. Schedule B was completed by the researcher with heroin dependents that visited SANCA Witbank for the period 31 January 2005 to 4 February 2005. Schedule A was completed by the researcher with personnel of SANCA out-patient clinics and the questions were discussed and completed telephonically. The conclusion is that the treatment programme of SANCA Witbank is in line with the rest of the drug dependent field and only minimal recommendations were made. / Social Work / MA(SS)(MENTAL HEALTH)

Text in English / Against the background of high prevalence of substance abuse in the globe generally and South Africa in particular, research has shown an association between substance abuse and other mental disorders or vice-versa. With most rehabilitation centres offering separate diagnosis and treatment for the two disorders, the problem of relapse has been significant. The purpose of this study is to explore the perceived effectiveness of CBT as a treatment model for substance use disorders with co-occurring disorders. Subsequently, the research will add to the already existing research evidence. The study was conducted in five rehabilitation centres in Gauteng Province. The qualitative descriptive research approach was used to conduct the study. Both purposive and snowball sampling were used to recruit participants in this study. The sample consisted of CBT specialist participants from diverse race, gender, ethnicity, and age ranging from 30 to 65 years, with at least a minimum of five years’ experience. A pilot study with two specialist participants was conducted, and this enhanced trustworthiness and authenticity of the study. The primary method of qualitative data collection employed in this study was semi-structured individual interviews for specialist participants. Grounded theory analysis was employed to analyse data. The findings of the study emphasised a need to not separate treatment of substance use disorders and psychiatric pathologies. More importantly, the effectiveness of CBT in treating both disorders was established by the study. The study further encourages more time in therapy as the way to increase effective results accompanied by less relapse rate. Accordingly, the findings of this study encourage more research and use of CBT treatment for substance use disorders with co-occurring disorders in South Africa. This study found that the most used substances are both legal and illegal, and they are further classified as depressants, stimulants, opioids, and new psychoactive substances. A vulnerable population to abuse substances includes adolescent and young adults, individuals with co-occurring disorders, and low socio-economic status. The disorders that normally co-exist with substance use disorder ranges from depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, sleeping disorder, impulsivity, antisocial behaviour, borderline disorder, paranoia, panic disorder, and suicide behaviour. The study found that genetic predisposition, depression, parental neglect and financial problems, experimentation with substances for relaxation, peer group pressure, and co-occurring disorders are high risk causes for substance abuse. The experience of participants in treating substance use disorder with co-occurring disorders involves which disorders get treated first, and the mental state of patients for effective treatment. The various substance abuse treatment models includes person centred approach, bio-psychosocial approach, holistic approach, eclectic therapy, integrated approach, resilient approach, rational emotive behavioural therapy, family therapy, motivational interviewing, 12-step programme, and cognitive behavioural therapy. The participants’ experience with CBT entails its usability in both individual and group therapy, the use of CBT skills after therapy, and CBT effectiveness in relapse prevention. Accessibility and affordability of CBT treatment is influenced by access to rehabilitation centres and cost of rehabilitation centres. Lastly, individual factors, family factors, and environmental factors are part of the contributing factors towards high relapse rates. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)