Responding to Drinking Problems (Routledge Library Editions: Alcohol and Alcoholism) - Softcover

Shaw, Stan; Cartwright, Alan; Spratley, Terry; Harwin, Judith

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1032611553 ISBN 13: 9781032611556

Publisher: Routledge, 2025

Synopsis

In the 1970s family doctors, social workers, researchers and administrators had been aware of the inadequacy of the response to drinking problems for some time. However, there had been no systematic examination of why such agents felt negatively about drinkers and disinclined to respond to them. Originally published in 1978, this book develops a radical new perspective on the prevalence and causes of drinking problems, combining reviews of historical and contemporary literature with the authors’ own research studies.

This perspective is then linked to the need for an integrated response from both medical and social services, with a particular accent on the need for a community response. By focusing on the relationship between helper and helped a solution is sought to the question which has troubled the field for many years: why are agents like family doctors and social workers so inadequate in recognising and responding to people with drinking problems?

The crucial aspects within the therapeutic relationship are pinpointed and experimental studies are described which show how training, casework, supervision and the redeployment of expertise can help improve recognition rates and responses to individual drinkers. This book thus expresses the need for major changes both in our attitudes and understanding of people with drinking problems and the difficulties of agents who try to help them. It should still be of historical interest to social scientists and those involved in helping people with drinking problems.

About this title

About the Author

Stan Shaw, Alan Cartwright, Terry Spratley, Judith Harwin

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1032611553
• ISBN 13: 9781032611556
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272