The Alcoholism Treatment Quarterly (ATQ), since its inception under the leadership of its founding editor, Bruce Carruth, has espoused an interprofessional approach to the treatment and recovery dimensions of substance use disorders (SUDs), with a focus on alcohol use disorders. Treatment and recovery are addressed in their individual, familial, community, and societal dimensions. More attention is now being devoted to the importance of the community aspects of recovery, and this welcome and timely emphasis has a special prominence in this issue of the ATQ.
Best and his colleagues have pioneered very meaningful research that addresses networking and recovery capital within communities that promote and enhance the recovery of individuals and families. Ways in which recovery pathways are initiated through positive and prosocial groups, as described in Asset Basic Community Development (ABCD), are explored. Innovative research methods are described in applying social inventory mapping to ABCD. Ranes and her coauthors trace the relationship between spirituality and sustained recovery following residential treatment, with improved affect and meaning in life as significant expressions of spirituality. The effects of gender on benefits conferred by Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) participation on an urban based Native American population are described by Muñoz and Tonigan. They found that the male and female participants maintained abstinence in equal measure whereas the males reported less instances of hazardous drinking. Kimball and his colleagues show how hoping and coping are important features of recovery among young adults in a collegiate recovery program. Themes associated with coping and hoping are identified. Stigma, associated with almost every aspect of SUDs, is an ongoing challenge for persons who experience the illness and those who treat the illness. The negative effects of stigma on service providers are identified by Kulesza and her colleagues, together with ways in which such effects can be addressed.
The two articles in the Perspectives section propose changes in their respective communities of service, changes which can influence their caring initiatives, Wigmore and Stanford describe the Two-Way Prayer as a precursor of the 11th Step of the AA program, a step that stresses the importance of prayer and meditation as essential components of the spiritual experience of recovery. The authors encourage a return to the wisdom of the Two-Way Prayer and its special attraction to adolescents and young adults. Fenster and Monti question whether an academic course in a school of social work, addressing harm reduction in the context of the overall treatment of SUDs, can influence student attitudes toward SUDs and harm reduction. The students indicated more openness to harm reduction and unchanged attitudes toward the treatment of SUDs.
Providing effective treatment for persons with SUDs and connecting recovering persons with community networks that promote and maintain a pathway of recovery, in the context of meaningful life, work and relationships, is an ongoing challenge. The mission of the ATQ is to promote interprofessional inquiry and conversation that advance effective treatment and many pathways to sustained recovery. Hopefully this issue of the ATQ contributes to this vision. Your comments and suggestions, as readers, subscribers and authors, are always welcome.