Social Support in the Treatment of Heroin Addicts

Abstract

Heroin addiction impairs every aspect of physical and psychological health of the addict, and at the same time, it impairs all forms of social functioning of the addict, as well as of everyone who loves him/her and of society as a whole, so it's necessary to put a lot of effort into treating this disease successfully. Working with heroin addicts shows that the treatment is a long and uncertain process, as the treatment must simultaneously cover three segments: psychological traits of heroin addicts, the degree of social support they have, and their motivation for this treatment. The theoretical goal of this research was to find out whether there is a link between social support and motivation for addiction treatment. The practical goal is to provide the improvement of the motivational aspect of treating heroin addicts, as well as to determine the role of social support in evaluating treatment outcomes. The research was conducted on a sample of 227 heroin addicts under treatment. The perception of social support for heroin addicts is the greatest when it comes to their families. A positive correlation was found between persistence in treatment and perceived social support from family members.

Keywords

• heroin addiction
• perception of social support
• persistence in treatment