A problem of moral, medical and social nature. The views on alcohol and drug problems among staff in the addiction treatment in Stockholm

• Published in: Nordisk alkohol- & narkotikatidskrift : NAT 2003-02, Vol.20 (2-3), p.129-143
• Main Author: Palm, Jessica
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1455-0725; 1458-6126
• DOI: 10.1177/1455072503020002-307

One of the aims of the study “Men and Women in Swedish Alcohol and Drug Treatment” is to find out how both the staff and clients in the system, as well as with the general population view alcohol and drug problems. The aim of the paper is to analyse with the help of a questionnaire how the staff in the Stockholm County Addiction Treatment System, within the health sector, view alcohol and drug problems and treatments of these problems. The results show that staff comply with the disease concept, although more so for alcohol than for drugs, as well as with the idea of alcohol and drug problems as mainly a social problem. At the same time, they tend to view the patients as partially responsible for be-coming alcohol or drug addicts, and fully responsible for resolving their problems, which in itself implies a somewhat moralistic view. All the respondents seem to hold much the same views, which in turn skews answer distributions and produces negligible differences between the various groups. Nonetheless these attitudes can be of some importance to the relationship between the patients and staff and for treatment in general.