Alcohol and other drug abuse among social work colleagues and their families: impact on practice.

This article presents data from a 1987 random sample survey mailed to the membership of the New York City chapter of the National Association of Social Workers. The purpose of the study was to determine the prevalence of alcohol and other drug problems as perceived by social workers among their colleagues and their family members and friends. Forty-three percent of the 198 respondents said that they had known at least one social worker who had a problem with alcohol or other drugs. The large number of social workers with close personal involvement with substance abuse was significant: 60 percent had close friends or family members with a problem, 39 percent had a nuclear family member with a problem, and 11 percent were adult children of alcoholics. The latter group reported a significantly higher impact on job functioning than did the other groups. Implications of these findings and recommendations for dealing with them are discussed.

The alcoholic social worker: a survey.

This paper presents data on 50 alcoholic social workers who had successfully stopped drinking for one year or more. In spite of the fact that these social workers were in many cases visibly in trouble with 63 arrests, 120 inpatient admissions, 13 suicide attempts, and a high reported incidence of addiction to other drugs, they found that collaegues and superiors as well as professionals from whom they sought individual treatment were extremely reluctant to confront the alcoholism problem directly. The authors urge social workers to consider ways of offering help to colleagues in a more systematic manner than is currently available.