Healing the Dragon : Heroin Use Disorder Recovery and Intervention

ISBN-13: 9783639164299 / Angielski / Miękka / 2009 / 196 str.

Monika Dos Santos

Opis

It is a sad reflection upon the field that practices and procedures for the treatment of heroin use disorders can so easily be introduced and applied without (or even contrary to) evidence. In South Africa, the field of heroin use disorder intervention has been in transition since the outbreak of the heroin epidemic. Yet despite growing evidence of an association between heroin dependents use of supplementary intervention services and intervention outcomes, heroin use disorder intervention programmes in South Africa generally fail to meet international intervention standards. This study, the first of its nature in South Africa and the Arican continent, delved into the insights of ten heroin use disorder specialists and synthesised the findings with the results of a previous study undertaken by the author relating to forty long-term voluntarily abstinent heroin dependents,study findings supported the maturing out hypothesis of heroin dependence. Findings of the present study suggest that the field is less in transition now than it was in 1995. Interventions and procedures have begun to be integrated routinely into clinical practice.

O autorze

Dr Monika dos Santos has worked therapeutically with heroin
dependents since 1998. She obtained her PhD in
psychology from the University of South Africa in 2008. She
is an academic/researcher at the Foundation for
Professional Development, and also counsels in private practice
at Vista Clinic.