Abstract

Changes to drug and alcohol policy post-1995 introduced the partnership style of working and many different routes by which treatment can be accessed. This means that a wide variety of professional groups now work with drug and alcohol users.

"The book makes a major contribution to the understanding substance use, drawing on relevant and recent policy.  It draws on practice and engages the reader in current debates in the area.  The book provides theoretical underpinnings that are influential in practice.  As key aspect of social work practice, substance misuse is relevant for practitioners.  A much needed book for students, practitioners and policy-makers."
Bridget Ng'andu, Ruskin College

This book provides an analytical and critical discussion of policy and practice in this area. It lays out the key debates and issues for understanding, exploring, dealing and working with substance misuse issues, users, their families and other professionals. The reader is introduced to the policy framework and why it is important for generic social work and other health and social care practitioners to have an understanding of substance misuse and the issues involved. The reader is assisted to think about how they can use their professional skills and values to inform assessments and interventions with substance users and reflective exercises encourage the reader to consider values issues and examine their own attitudes. This book will be valuable to students and practitioners wishing to update their skills and knowledge.

The book makes a major contribution to the understanding substance use, drawing on relevant and recent policy.  It draws on practice and engages the reader in current debates in the area.  The book provides theoretical underpinnings that are influential in practice.  As key aspect of social work practice, substance misuse is relevant for practitioners.  A much needed book for students, practitioners and policy-makers.

I found this text to be informative, clearly grounded within context and specifically useful in relating practice based issues to political agendas. The author facilitated both engagement with an easy writing style and enthusiasm for this topic.

Elaine Arnull‘s research has attracted international attention and exerted an influence on policy and practice. She is interested in finding innovative solutions to research, social policy and educational problems. Elaine was as a Probation Officer and has worked in the third and policy sectors. She is an experienced educator and has developed and taught social work, criminal justice, criminology, health and research methods programmes. She is the author of ‘Social Work in the Youth Justice System: a multidisciplinary perspective’ (2013) with Darrell Fox and numerous journal and research publications.  Elaine has worked with substance users and their families, developed and campaigned on substance use policy and researched substance use across the spectrum of statutory, criminal justice and voluntary and not for profit sectors.

The book was very interesting and useful for teaching and for both my own update on substance misuse. I really liked the fact that a couple of chapters have been written to provide a thorough policy and service overview tracking significant changes in rapidly evolving services and practice approaches, in addition to political support for them. The social and legal context is typical of the book, in that is it well written and appealing to the reader, for example quoting the band' The Streets' as an example of the irony of it all. It's good that key topics like normalisation and decriminalisation are covered, and later prisoners are discussed along with some exercises and discussion about motivation interviewing.