Ethnocultural Factors in Substance Abuse Treatment

This volume presents a culturally informed framework for understanding and treating substance abuse problems. From expert contributors, chapters cover specific ethnocultural groups in the United States, including Americans of African, Native American, Latino, European, Middle Eastern, and Asian descent. While emphasizing the need to see each client as a unique individual, the book examines how ethnocultural factors may affect a person's attitudes toward alcohol and other drugs, patterns of substance use, reasons for seeking treatment, and responsiveness to various interventions. Themes addressed include the impact of migration and acculturation issues, spiritual values and traditions, family structures, gender roles, and experiences of prejudice and discrimination. Featuring a wealth of illustrative clinical material, the volume makes concrete recommendations for more competent, effective assessment and intervention. It also guides clinicians toward greater awareness of the ways their own ethnocultural backgrounds may affect their interactions with clients.

Shulamith Lala Ashenberg Straussner, DSW, LCSW, is Professor at the Shirley M. Ehrenkranz School of Social Work at New York University, where she is also Director of the Post-Master's Program in the Treatment of Alcohol- and Drug-Abusing Clients. She was a Fulbright Senior Scholar to Israel in 2003; Distinguished Visiting Professor at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Beer-Sheva, Israel, in January 2002; and Visiting Professor at the Omsk State Pedagogical University in Siberia, Russia, in the spring of 2000. Dr. Straussner has authored and edited numerous publications dealing with substance abuse and is the founding editor of the new Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions. She has served on the National Center on Substance Abuse Treatment panel on workforce issues and is a founding board member of the New York State Institute for Professional Development in Addictions. She serves as a consultant to various hospitals, agencies, and other organizations in New York and lectures on a variety of topics throughout the United States and abroad. She also has a private therapeutic and supervisory practice in New York City.