Social Work with Substance Users
- Anna Nelson - National Addiction Workforce Development Centre, New Zealand
The book provides a detailed understanding of:
" Historical and current policy relating to prohibition and drug use
" A range of substances and their potential effects on service users
" Models of best practice including screening and assessment, brief intervention, motivation approaches and relapse prevention
" Particular issues and needs of a diverse range of service user groups
This will be an essential text for social work students taking courses in substance use and addiction. It will also be valuable reading for qualified social workers and students taking related courses across the health and social care field.
Teaching on substance problems on social work courses has been patchy, to say the least, and it is heartening to see that a number of texts are coming on the market to support improvements with regard to this. 'Social Work with Substance Users' is a sound, basic introduction for undergraduates and social workers with no previous experience in this field.
Its strengths are:
- its accessible, easy to read style.
- factual accuracy.
- anti-oppressive practice as a theme throughout.
- strong practice chapters [e.g. motivational interviewing and relapse prevention].
- Consideration of various service user groups and social worker settings.
Limitations:
- Whilst theories as to why people develop problems are introduced at various points, a brief early chapter contrasting these would have been helpful.
- Smoking cessation might have been given greater prominence.
- More on the various uses of pharmacotherapy and on working with stimulant uses would have strengthened the book.
- The chapter on children affected by parental problems addresses the issues primarily from the perspective of child care workers. There are different but equally complex challenges for practitioners dealing with adults with problems who have children.
Tighter editing would have tidied up a few problems of sentence structure and repetition.
Despite some omissions, this is a sound and easy to read introductory text.