Enhancing Health-Conscious Behaviors Among Clients in Substance Abuse Treatment Programs

Abstract

The physical health of substance abuse clients significantly deteriorates because of the client’s prolonged abuse of alcohol and other drugs and accompanying behaviors. The purposes of this study are (a) to understand how substance abuse clinicians think about the health needs of their clients, (b) to identify the mechanisms through which clinicians seek to enhance health-conscious behaviors among their clients, and (c) to identify how substance abuse clinicians view their role in enhancing health-conscious behaviors among their clients. A qualitative study was conducted using in-depth, semistructured interviews with substance abuse clinicians (N = 16) from 4 substance abuse treatment centers. Using the theory of planned behavior as a framework for understanding the promotion of health-conscious behaviors in substance abuse treatment, the findings suggest that substance abuse clinicians are capable of enhancing health-conscious behaviors among clients in substance abuse programs.

KEYWORDS:

• health promotion
• recovery
• social work practice
• substance abuse treatment
• theory of planned behavior

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The first author would like to acknowledge the support of California State University, San Bernardino, School of Social Work where he was on faculty at the onset of this study, and where the third and fourth authors were students at the onset of this study.

FUNDING

This study was partially funded by the NIDA (1R24DA033877-01) CSUSB Diversity-Promoting Institutions Drug Abuse Research Program of the National Institutes of Health.

Additional information

Funding

This study was partially funded by the NIDA (1R24DA033877-01) CSUSB Diversity-Promoting Institutions Drug Abuse Research Program of the National Institutes of Health.