Random Thoughts on Substance Abuse Services.
As one who has worked in the substance abuse field, I have observed a sort of sub-culture that includes the workers, the staff and the clients. This population or sub-culture is unique in that the entire dynamic is sort of underground. The substance abuse field operates much like the registry, the unemployment office, the courts etc. It is in fact an isolated system with similar characteristics. This said, I feel that this system is also antithetical to any ideals that have to do with equality both between worker and client and in regard to society at large. Overwhelmingly clients who seek substance abuse counseling are deemed unsafe to themselves and others and unfit to work in the field for usually two years of documented sobriety. I have no issue with that concept because often clients are subject to relapse and the issues related to substance abuse pervade client’s lives typically for the rest of their lives. Although, this does not imply that the introduction of radical values should be avoided, on the contrary, the population of "substance abusers" is ripe for such political action because substance abuse is a socio-political issue first and foremost. Many people do not trace how drugs get into their neighborhoods, how drugs have been implemented at times into neighborhoods for social control (e.g. heroin in the 60’s to diffuse the Black Panthers, methamphetamine from the 50s- present that criminalizes neighborhoods developed by the military) .
The discussion and empowerment clients in the substance abuse field need, in my estimation, have very much to do with socialist values. If we take a look, the time tested program almost every "substance abuser" is encouraged to attend are NA (Narcotics Anonymous) meetings which are highly socialist in their structure. Self-help groups are in fact based on the principle of cooperation rather than competition, using Marxist principles of collective power and equal standing within the group to achieve individual goals, and devotion to the group in the way of dues, attendance, maintenance of public space and rejection of Capitalist marketing of the NA name all employ Socialist or Radical principles in their application.
A very important element of being a radical social worker has to do with shining light on the radical elements already in our society with clients rather than ignoring them, rather than creating new forms per se. The radical perspective is equally present in individual therapy if the clinician chooses to use that in his or her repertoire of skills. It is in fact clinicians' themselves who need simple Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to re-frame issues clients present and accept that often these problems stem directly from social injustice that, if we are honest we could see, need, necessarily, revolutionary solutions rather than business as usual liberalism.
