Implementing the Grand Challenge of Reducing and Preventing Alcohol Misuse and its Consequences

‘Reducing and Preventing Alcohol Misuse and Its Consequences’ is one of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare’s Grand Challenges for Social Work, a programme launched in 2012. This book reports on the work of many social work and allied professions scholars, describing current strategies for achieving the ambitious goals identified in this Grand Challenge.

The chapters in this book fall into two broad categories: ‘general’ pieces, and those which address specific workforce development issues for meeting the Grand Challenge. The contributors cover the problem of alcohol misuse from a number of perspectives, including racial/ethnic disparities in alcohol treatment services; adolescents and emerging adults; and trauma/PTSD. The book also explores both technology-based interventions for reducing alcohol misuse and its consequences, and various models for preparing the workforce by effectively engaging in screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT), for those experiencing alcohol-related problems complicated by other social and behavioural health problems. The book concludes with two interviews, focused global initiatives, and fetal alcohol spectrum disorders. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions.

Audrey Begun is a social work professor at Ohio State University, USA.

Diana DiNitto is a social work professor at The University of Texas-Austin, USA.

S. Lala Straussner is a social work professor at New York University, USA.