Professional Interventions That Facilitate 12-Step Self-Help Group Involvement

Alcohol Research & Health, Spring, 1999 by Keith Humphreys

Thanks in part to support from Federal agencies, research on TSF interventions and AA has expanded significantly in recent years. The next decade will offer researchers and clinicians the opportunity to build on this foundation. AA and other self-help organizations are the most commonly sought resource for substance abuse problems in the United States, currently reaching more than 1 million Americans (McCrady and Miller 1993); determining how treatment providers and self-help groups can more effectively collaborate in our system of formal and informal care will benefit many substance-dependent Americans.

KEITH HUMPHREYS, PH.D., is a research psychologist at the Center for Health Care Evaluation, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, and an assistant research professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA.

Support for this work was provided by National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism grants P50-AA-05595 and R21-AA-11700 and by the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Strategic Health Group and Health Services Research and Development Service.

(1.) Al-Anon is a self-help organization for spouses and significant others in alcohol-dependent people's lives.

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