GROUP WORK WITH ALCOHOLIC,POLY DRUG-INVOLVED ADOLESCENTS WITH DEVIANT BEHAVIOR SYNDROME

Trail-blazing efforts are now underway in social work treatment with adolescents who are involved with both alcohol and other drug abuse and who have been arrested for antisocial acts. These are young people who are caught in a pathological system which is spiraling them deeper and deeper into self-destruction, either by their antisocial acts leading to continuing conflict with the law and often incarceration, and/or to the breakdown of their physical system by the substance abuse. Traditional forms of social casework or psychotherapies are of little use since the young person is likely to deny vigorously that he has a problem and shrink from contact with the helping resources that are available. Whereas a psychodynamic orientation is necessary in order for the worker to provide the degree of understanding of the internal turmoil of these young persons, the focus of treatment must be upon problem solving and a peer support system that can sustain the faltering ego through the social hazards of adolescence and young adulthood. To understand the professional demands of this practice, we will describe the general characteristics of this special segment of today's youthful population, the social-psychodynamic factors involved, and the diagnostic issues raised. Several concepts for clinical practice with these young people will be discussed: enforced treatment, age-related differential planning, and group work as the optimal treatment modality. An actual group work practice situation will illustrate theorerical and technical issues raised in the treatment process.