Suchergebnisse

His paper looks at the implications of a judicial review last July of four cases concerned with the eligibility of service charges for Housing Benefit funding. It explains why the NHF recommends that funding for tenancy support should remain part of the housing system rather than be moved to social services.

Many drug abusers do not seek help in formal treatment settings, and little is known about their resistance to treatment. In this study, we offered a treatment referral assessment to a sample of 283 drug users. Only 58 subjects (or 20.5% of the sample) accepted this offer. We explored differences between those who accepted the treatment referral assessment and those who declined the opportunity. Logistic regression identified predictors of acceptance related to higher levels of severity in drug use and higher scores on a motivation and readiness scale. Among those who declined the assessment, 43.1 % denied drug use, 37.3% thought their drug use was not a problem, and 16.4% expressed no interest in treatment. Further analysis showed that scores on motivation and readiness were positively related to a higher level of severity In employment problems, family problems, and drug use, and to having a history of prior treatment.

This paper reports the results of a study on the use of illicit drugs and related problems in groups that are often considered hidden populations at high risk for drug abuse. Face-to-face interviews were conducted in 1992–94 with 5,168 subjects from sexually transmitted disease (STD) clinics, hospital emergency rooms (ER), and jails in Los Angeles County, California. Extensive drug involvement and other HIV-risk behaviors were reported by all three samples. Excluding marijuana, crack and cocaine were the most prevalent drugs used; the rate of positive cocaine urinalysis was 8.5% for STD subjects, 18.1% for ER subjects, and 52.8% for the arrestees. About 40% of the subjects from both STDs and jails and 27% from ERs reported three or more sex partners in the past year. About 41% of STD and 49% of ER samples also reported having arrest records. Current use of heroin and cocaine was highly associated with multiple sex partners and an arrest record. The study confirmed the high prevalence of drug abuse and other high-risk behaviors in these samples. The importance of targeting these groups for early identification and intervention is underscored.