W. Cloud

Conceptualizing Recovery Capital: Expansion of a Theoretical Construct

In order to capture key personal and social resources individuals are able to access in their efforts to overcome substance misuse, we introduced the construct of recovery capital into the literature. The purpose of this paper is to further explore the construct and include discussions of implications unexplored in our previous writings. In this paper we reveal the relationship between access to large amounts of recovery capital and substance misuse maintenance and introduce the concept of negative recovery capital. In doing so, we examine the relationships between negative recovery capital and gender, age, health, mental health, and incarceration.

Natural Recovery from Addiction Treatment Implications

At a 1993 conference on addiction treatment held at the University of Denver, a significant number of participants reported believing that the dominant treatment approaches for alcoholand drug-addicted persons were deficient. Of the more than 500 participants in attendance, many of whom were nursing or social work professionals, more than 70% expressed the belief that the traditional model of addiction treatment needs to be changed. Over the years dissatisfaction with the medical model of addiction and related forms of treatment has been growing. Despite this increasing dissension over traditional treatment approaches, there have been few attempts at developing treatment approaches that correspond to alternative conceptualizations of addiction. This has been particularly true in the area of natural recovery research. While research has demonstrated the process of natural recovery, there is a paucity of work that attempts to derive treatment implications from this process. As Sobell et al. (1993) have recently argued, treatment providers have a lot to learn from self-healers who have terminated their addictions without the benefit of treatment or organized self-help. This article outlines some of the potential implications of this notion. The authors discuss ongoing research on the population of self-healers and then explore the treatment implications that flow from the findings.

Denver Housing Authority's Park Avenue HOPE VI revitalization project: community impact results

In 2002, the Denver Housing Authority1 received a HOPE VI grant from HUD in the amount of 20 million dollars to raze and rehabilitate three “severally distressed” public housing communities. Named the Park Avenue HOPE VI Revitalization Project, the purpose was to create both low-income and market-rate housing in an urban environment along with recreation and business opportunities. An evaluation of the community impact of the project has yielded favorable results. Employing a quasi-experimental research design, analyses of the data collected revealed impressive outcomes in three areas. These include a decrease in overall as well as violent crime, increased home-buying activity, and increased property values within a quarter-mile radius of the Park Avenue HOPE VI site. Adding to the many evaluations of HOPE VI projects nationally, this article offers community-level results to further our understanding of federal housing policy and its effects on urban centers. 1Data and support for the study were provided by The Denver Housing Authority. The opinions and conclusions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and not necessarily shared by the Denver Housing Authority.

The phenomenon of self-change: overview and conceptual issues

We should also consider those who have a more fleeting contact with deviance, whose careers lead them away from it into conventional ways of life. Thus, for example, studies of delinquents who fail to become adult criminals might teach us even more than studies of delinquents who progress in crime [1, pp. 24–25].

Self-change among gamblers and cigarette smokers

This chapter reviews studies of self-change among gamblers and cigarette smokers. As will be evident, the literature is much less advanced for these types of addictive behavior than are studies of self-change from abuse of alcohol and other drugs.

Concluding comments: what I would tell my neighbor

This book and the literature it reviews show the broad range and impressive development of research into the self-change process over the past decade. In particular, general population studies have shown that self-change is a major pathway to recovery. This last chapter draws together the core findings and tailors them into a ‘What I would tell my neighbor’ format.

Role of minimum interventions in the natural recovery process

Given what is known about natural recovery, an inevitable question is: where do health-care providers fit in? As experts suggest, up to 82% of alcohol abusers resolve their problems without help from Professionals [1]. So, why are Professionals interested in getting involved? The answer, at least in part, may be because health-care providers may be able to expedite this natural, yet time-delayed, process.

Natural recovery in cross-cultural perspective

As we have already seen, the idea of ‘natural recovery’ or’ spontaneous remission’ from various states of addiction is a poorly understood and much contested concept. Some commentators in the field of alcohol and drug studies accept that it happens, while others remain skeptical. Given the nature of this debate occurring within Anglo-European societies, it is not surprising to find that the idea of natural recovery becomes even more problematic and unclear when considering other non-Western societies. Regrettably, little cross-cultural research has been done on these issues, so we lack specific knowledge. Indeed, Klingemann [1, p. 155] notes the dominance of the USA in the literature — of 80 works reviewed on environmental influences impeding or promoting change in substance behavior by adolescents, seven came from outside the US and only one from a non-anglophone country.

Taking the treatment to the community

As discussed in Chapter 1, because the vast majority of substance abusers are unlikely to enter traditional substance abuse treatment programs there is a serious need to develop and evaluate alternative, minimally intrusive interventions that appeal to individuals with substance use problems. If substance users are unwilling to come into treatment, what can be done to motivate them to change their substance use?

Environmental influences in natural resolution: bringing in context

Addiction perspectives on substance misuse focus on the allegedly irresistible appeal of alcohol or drugs among predisposed individuals, who presumably are made vulnerable to their addicting effects by some genetic, biological, or character flaw. An important shortcoming of this conventional perspective is that it ignores the powerful effects of the environmental context on alcohol and drug use, which is amenable to manipulation to reduce use and promote problem resolution. Ironically, interest in the environmental context that surrounds resolution of substance abuse problems has emerged from studies of natural recovery.