3181.0: Monday, November 13, 2000: 4:30 PM-6:00 PM | ||||
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| People with disabilities have a high prevalence of excessive use of alcohol and substance abuse. Reasons include: economic and social isolation, low self-esteem, increased access to prescription medications, entitlement issues, decreased cognitive awareness of the consequences, impaired impulse control, and reduced tolerance. Many studies have demonstrated that people with disabling injuries of the brain and spinal cord often were intoxicated at the time of the trauma that created their disability and had extensive prior histories of drinking as well. These people are at the highest risk for continued alcohol and substance abuse; this will substantially inhibit and undermine any injury rehabilitation interventions reinforcing a vicious cycle of impaired recovery and continued substance abuse. Professionals who provide substance abuse treatment, specialists in rehabilitive medicine, and activists in the disability rights movement must share the objective of empowering people with disabilities to make healthy choices in their lives. This panel will bring together providers, researchers, and activists from different backgrounds with varied perspectives and approaches to this issue in order to share perspectives and discover common ground. The panelists will discuss: current research on drinking and drug use by people with disabilities, the role of substance abuse in disability caused by violence, and the contentious issue of whether broadening the capacity of existing alcohol and substance abuse treatment programs to meet the apparent needs of people with disabilities actually can provide appropriate treatment and advocacy for this underserved and very important population | ||||
| See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement. | ||||
| Learning Objectives: Refer to the individual abstracts for learning objectives | ||||
| David Keer, MA | ||||
| Pamela Block Lourie, PhD | ||||
| Alcohol, Drugs and Disability: So What's the Problem? John de Miranda, Ed.M | ||||
| Alcohol and drug abuse treatment for individuals with disabilities: A provider's perspective Deborah Larson, MA, CADAC | ||||
| An Analysis of Statewide Substance Use Treatment Episode Data and Persons with Coexisting Disabilities Dennis C. Moore, EdD, Elizabeth Corbitt, PhD | ||||
| Substance abuse in persons with a violently acquired disability on Chicago's west side Patrick Devlieger, PhD | ||||
| Sponsor: | Disability Forum | |||
| Cosponsors: | Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs; Community Health Planning and Policy Development; Environment; Injury Control and Emergency Health Services; Social Work; Socialist Caucus | |||