Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT)

Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT)

Each member of the class will be assigned one step of the research process:

Research methods

This article approaches the treatment of addicted African American women in ways drawn from traditional African culture. While the modern African American woman is clearly not the same as her continental African foremother, the reality of her life is still predicated on the basis of her culture and her material wealth or lack of it. The approach recommended here, a rite of passage, derives from the belief that the value orientations drawn from the African wisdom of the ages offers the best way to work with families to recover both sobriety and a powerful understanding and repossession of culture that will help to ensure not only sobriety but also ways of holding together and rebuilding the families of today and the future.

Historically, drug treatment programs have been less than sensitive to women and to the cultural considerations that affect them, and women, as a whole, have seldom received adequate treatment. Although opportunities for women to receive treatment have recently begun to expand, in many cases, treatment for drug addiction alone is insufficient. For women to receive adequate care with sustainable results, it is critical that they and their children be involved in the recovery process. With the establishment in 1992 of the Women and Children’s Branch of the Center for Substance Abuse Treatment (CSAT), a federal agency, it became apparent that the family is the most powerful resource for the survival of its own members [Amen 1992].

To be effective, the treatment approach must explore uncharted waters: family preservation as a primary factor in the treatment of substance-abusing women. The inclusion of family members and the understanding of the family’s cultural context, when taken together, can be major deterrents to the protracted use of drugs. The withdrawal of destructive substances can reduce the negative forces that have the overall effect of disassembling the lives of women and their families.

The rite of passage is an innovative approach to treatment for African American women and their children whose existence has been marked by family dysfunction and substance abuse. It is designed to assist families recovering from addiction and addictive ways of living. It offers a balanced approach, rich in African culture and tradition, that empowers families to achieve the level of functioning necessary for sustenance of individuals and the families that individuals make together. The aim is to make families self-sustaining.