Attitudes towards 12-step groups and referral practices in a 12-step naive treatment culture; a survey of addiction professional
Addressing substance use disorders effectively requires a long-term approach. Substance abuse treatment is typically of short duration; referring patients to Twelve Step based self-help groups (TSGs) - e.g. Narcotics Anonymous, represents a promising complementary recovery resource. Clinicians' attitudes and referral practices towards the TSGs have mainly been studied in countries with high integration of the 12-step philosophy in their substance abuse services and where the TSGs are widely available, such as the US. In Norway, there are currently 294 weekly TSG meetings (6 per 100,000 inhabitants). This study describes clinicians' attitudes and referral practices to TSGs in Norway where health authorities seek to promote self-help participation, but where the treatment culture is unfamiliar with 12-step fellowships.
Hi Tony i agree with you also i belive in recent years there has been a great deal of change in services to start pushing the NA message to addicts also offer other 12 step group options. In past years i wittnessed remarks from drug workers as ("they are a cult") or ("God thumpers"). Times have changed i did as much as i could to try change the culture in services through involvement and audits which exposed services which were not offering CHOICE to service user, under QuADS (every service user has the right to information on AA & NA.
It is more established in the USA and other european places but the UK is fast growoin and i feel it should be pushed more where there are many TSG's.
Mani
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