Addiction Today

HOMELESS EXPERIENCES, IDENTITIES AND CULTURES

edited by Mike Seal

Published by Russell House at £19.95. 183 pages.
ISBN 978-1-905541-06-05.

academics, service users, practitioners and other stakeholders challenge stereotypes of homeless identities. They examine how being passed through the many systems dealing with homelessness can become a very part of the identity of those who are homeless. Readers learn how this happens and implications for the process of change in both the individual and the practitioner and agency response. Seal also promotes a greater awareness of a professional identity for workers in the field.

I approached this useful, topical book from the perspective of being a provider of abstinence-based residential and day programme services for severely dependent drinkers and with a growing awareness and understanding of the essential need to address housing – as well as education/training and employment – as part of any well-constructed care plan to help clients maintain treatment gains. This book gives often-challenging learning and information for anyone working with the homeless or, indeed, in any context where housing is an issue. The authors' agenda for action will involve all who read it.

Simon Nicolle MSc MA MBACP (accred) is treatment director at Mount Carmel treatment centre in Streatham, London

MANUAL OF SMOKING CESSATION

by Andy McEwen, Peter Hajek, Hayden McRobbie, Robert West

Published by Blackwell at £19.99. 151 pages.

ISBN 10: 1-40513-337-7.

How appropriate – in these days of changing laws about smoking in public areas, and the acknowledgement by governments and health professionals alike that smoking is drug addiction – that this book should appear for review.

The National Institute of Drug Addiction in the US published a research paper in 1998 and revised it last year. This states that nicotine is one of the hardest drugs to kick, and probably the most abused.

Recovery from nicotine abuse is, as with all addictive substances and behaviours, a process and prone to relapse. This book offers a sound cognitive evidence-based system of stopping and staying stopped from a major addictive illness.

As someone who has worked in both first- and second-stage addiction-treatment facilities,
I believe that smoking cessation is vital for a solid recovery.

The authors show the damage which smoking does to organs, to the body holistically, and how the effect of smoking restricts and shortens people’s lives. It is not a threatening book, more a discussion as to the pros and cons of a major lifestyle change.

Richard C Renson AdvDipCoun, NCAC is a psychotherapist working with people with addictive behaviours; he works with Priory Healthcare.

WALKING INTO ETERNITY

by David Agnew

Published by Flux Gallery at £15.50. 56 pages & CD.

ISBN 0-9550158-2-0.

THE BOOK AND ACCOMPANYING CD chart the author's journey from the despair of rock-bottom addiction, through the pain and out the other side to recovery. Anyone with experience of addiction or who works in the field of recovery will find insight, comfort, truth and laughter here. Agnew's short, sparse verse gets straight to the point as he describes the highways and byways of life, addiction and recovery. His rich Irish voice contains every emotion, dark depth and joyful height, as he journals from the early days of emerging from despair. The message is clear: it is hard, it is tough but keep going, persevere, do the work and trust – you will come through. He unfolds his journey into recovery, the glimpses of something better, and growing hope as his strength and health return. The message changes as his life expands from a simple yearning for freedom from addiction into a richer full life, with all its high and lows, one day at a time. To be moved and re-inspired as a professional, or on your own personal journey, I recommend this book and CD wholeheartedly.

The CD is particularly relevant for people in early recovery who might struggle with the written word.

Jane Sleven LMG couns BWY Dip teaches yoga, meditation and life skills in Bristol and the UK as well as India and Egypt

CLINICAL HANDBOOK OF CO-EXISTING MENTAL HEALTH & DRUG & ALCOHOL PROBLEMS

by Amanda Baker, Richard Velleman

Published by Routledge at £27.99. 402 pages.

ISBN 978-1-59391-776-3.

co-existing mental health and drug and alcohol problems are a frequent occurrence in primary care and clinical settings. Despite this, health professionals receive limited training in how to detect, assess and formulate interventions for such clients, and few clinical guidelines exist. This handbook aims to redress this, with treatment plans, medications for dual disorders, and cognitive-therapy approaches. The book also explores relatively uncharted areas such as approaches to working with isolated, rural populations.

There are clear guidelines for developing integrated treatment programmes, doing assessments and implementing a wide range of individual, group and family interventions, as well as case studies demonstrating these.

Residential and other housing services, involuntary interventions, vocational rehabilitation, and psychopharmacology for dual disorders are also covered.

This handbook will increase clinicians' confidence in working with people with co-existing problems, and is an ideal resource for counsellors, psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers and many working in primary care.

Caroline Morris MA is chief verifier for OCR for the Health and Social Care Suite of NVQs, incorporating Drugs and Alcohol National Standards (Danos).