Challenges of Serving Seriously Mentally Ill Substance Abusers relates the history of this growing problem, and reports on six San Francisco Bay Area counties' efforts to integrate mental health and addiction recovery treatment. Dual Diagnosis includes interviews with clients, family members and providers who give a balanced picture of what public agencies are doing to overcome service obstacles. Parents tell emotional stories of trying to save adult children caught in still-developing integrated treatment systems.
Clients talk candidly about denying their symptoms, lying to therapists, self-destructive behavior.
Separate funding streams shouldn't stop any county from have highly collaborative programs. The real barrier is attitudinal. About the Author Marjorie Beggs is senior staff writer of the San Francisco Study Center. Her articles have appeared in Cooperative Learning, Refugees, NABE News , San Francisco Examiner California Living magazine, and other periodicals.