Substance Abuse Intervention, Prevention, Rehabilitation, and Systems Change

Helping Individuals, Families, and Groups to Empower Themselves

Edith Freeman

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Year: 2001
• ISBN:
  9780231504843
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Social Work
• Index: Social Sciences

This book is the first to utilize the empowerment approach of social work practice with substance-abusing clients, bridging clinical, community, and social policy approaches in order to place individual addiction in its sociopolitical context. As Lorraine Gutiérrez points out in her foreword, the book "challenges us to transform our thinking about substance abuse and move beyond our existing focus on individual deficits." Arguing that pathology-focused definitions of substance abuse tend to transform people into their problems, Freeman instead advocates for strengths-centered policies and regulations as the means to empower clients, communities, and society as a whole.

Freeman outlines basic empowerment principles and practices, then details the service delivery processes; offers a context for power, policy, and funding decisions; and examines the needs of special populations. Case examples supplement each chapter, and the final part examines four exemplary programs that demonstrate the empowerment process in action.

Table of contents

• Table of Contents
• Series Editor’s Note
• Foreword
• Preface and Acknowledgments
• Part 1. Foundations of Empowerment Principles and Practice in Substance Abuse Services
• Part 2. The Multilevel Substance Abuse Service System: A Context for Power, Policy, and Funding Decisions
• Part 3. An Empowered Substance Abuse Service Delivery Process: Expanding the Client-Centered Continuum of Care
• 4. Part 4. Empowering, Microcosm, and Empowered Substance Abuse Programs: The Voices of Special Populations
• Epilogue: Lessons Learned from Empowerment Research: Implications for the Future of Empowerment Practice
• References
• Index