A Differential Counselor Role Model for the Treatment of Drug Addicts

FEW SOCIAL, psychological, or medical prob- lems contain so many intertwined and interacting factors as drug addiction.Addiction is not a single, distinct entity.It affects a great many persons of widely varying backgrounds, physiques, psyches, ages, economic resources, and other characteristics, who abuse a variety of drugs in differing patterns, amounts, and degrees of purity and with differing consequences.When drug abusers come to treatment, it is for different reasons and to different agencies, where different modes of treatment are used.Treatment or even amelioration, as far as possible, must therefore be individually tailored, and a multi-modality approach is the sensible one.To mention only two factors among many-Cuskey and associates found that addicts with more education and those who were unmarried when treatment started tended to stay in treat- ment longer than the relatively uneducated or those who were married (1).Educated persons are likely to have a greater familiarity with and understanding of treatment modalities, and single persons have different responsibilities and pres- sures than married people.It is also clear that the prosperous white physician who takes opiates to get through his busy but productive day should