ABSTRACT
With each passing day, substance abuse and addiction are taking a stronger hold on American families and communities, while access to treatment is growing more limited. As the number of people in need of help grows steadily larger, fewer insurance plans are paying for traditional psychological services, and the funding of social service programs is falling farther behind the need (White, 1998). The track record of traditional services has left many of the people who fund them—and many who use them—with doubts about their effectiveness. Treatment for mental illness faces a similar crisis, and in the meantime, people with these illnesses swell the ranks of the homeless.
