ABSTRACT
For some time, researchers, administrators and agents themselves have been aware of the inadequacy of the response to drinking problems. However, there has been no previous systematic examination of why agents felt negatively about drinkers and disinclined to respond to them. It was felt that agents would only become sympathetic towards drinkers and therapeutically committed to respond if they accepted that drinkers were ill and needed help. Studies of training courses have confirmed that agents’ attitudes are unlikely to be strongly influenced by objective information. The reluctance of general community agents to respond to clients with drinking problems has sometimes been interpreted as a manifestation of over-moralistic attitudes. There has been considerable debate whether such attributes of effective therapists represent a single dimension or a number of different factors. In fact, therapeutic commitment is generally so low that many agents would prefer not to work with any drinkers at all.
