Recovery challenges among dually diagnosed individuals

Although there is a high prevalence of co-occurring mental and substance ab use disorders, and empirical evidence shows the need to integrate multiple treatment services for dually diagnosed persons, service integration is rel atively recent and often poorly implemented. Moreover. service providers an d clients often hold divergent views of what constitute appropriate and fea sible treatment goals. This paper presents interview data from an urban sam ple of dually diagnosed members of self-help groups (N = 310) concerning th e challenges confronting them in their recovery, and discusses the interrel ations of these issues. The findings indicate that most clients struggle wi th emotional and socioeconomic issues, which bear significantly on their ab ility to handle adequately other aspects of recovery. (C) 2000 Elsevier Sci ence Inc. All rights reserved.