Meredith Hanson

Motivational Interviewing to Encourage Self-Help Participation Following Alcohol Detoxification

Objective: This study tested a motivational intervention designed to enhance the likelihood that detoxified alcohol users will seek and participate in any form of aftercare. Method: After a baseline interview, 96 clients (76 men and 20 women) in a hospital inpatient detoxification unit were randomly assigned to either a standard care condition or a motivational interviewing condition, consisting of three motivational sessions conducted by master’s-level therapists. Results: Two months after discharge, participants in the motivational condition did not differ from controls in the areas of sustained abstinence, typical drinking, or entry into formal treatment. However, clients receiving motivational interviewing were more likely to participate in 12-step groups. Conclusions: Motivational interviewing is a potentially useful strategy to encourage detoxification clients to initiate participation in self-help and may show promise as a strategy for helping alcohol users remain abstinent during the critical initial period following discharge from detoxification.

RELIABILITY OF THE WEAK OPIATE WITHDRAWAL SCALE FOR INNER-CITY OPIATE USERS '

The reliability (Kuder-Richardson 20) of the 84-item Weak Opiate Withdrawal Scale was estimated for a sample of 70 inner-city men who used opiates and had passed through the acute withdrawal stage. Analysis suggested modification of the scale to exclude negatively worded as well as cognitively sophisticated items which elicit unreliable and paradoxical responses from this population.

Cross‐National Teaching and Learning: Implications for Social Work

This paper presents findings from an international project designed to help Ukrainian school‐based practitioners enhance their capacity to assist families and children struggling with the long‐term consequences of the 1986 Chornobyl nuclear power plant disaster. Post‐training evaluation indicates that the teaching method was received well and that participants significantly improved knowledge and attitudes in such areas as understanding of substance abuse and the use of client‐centered, strengths‐based social work practice interventions.

Using Personal Narratives for Curriculum Development about Substance Abuse and Older Adults

This article reports on a project to sensitize graduate social work students taking courses in substance abuse to the needs of older adults. Graduate social work students at a major urban school of social work in the Northeast were recruited and trained to interview older adults with a history of substance abuse problems regarding their life experiences. The authors developed educational vignettes based on the interviews and curriculum units based on these vignettes to be incorporated into the substance abuse curriculum. The challenges and rewards of engaging students in the process of developing educational vignettes based on older adults lived experiences are also discussed.

Book Reviews : Granvold, D. K. (Ed.). (1994). Cognitive and behavioral treatment: Methods and applications. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole. 393 pp. (cloth), ISBN-0-534-19194-0:

Behavioral and cognitive methods have become increasingly popular among social workers as effective, efficient, and flexible practice strategies. Despite this growth, relatively little has been written from a social work perspective about the integrated application of these methods. Cognitive and Behavioral Treatment: Methods and Applications is a scholarly attempt to correct this deficit. The contributors comprise a veritable &dquo;who’s who&dquo; of behavioral and cognitive social work practitioners and scholars. Of the 23 writers of the book’s 17 chapters, 22 are clearly identified as social workers. Each senior author is a social work educator.