The drug addict : intergenerational family therapy and the Lulama programme

Abstract

The question posed in this research is whether intergenerational family therapy included in the Lulama Programme has a different effect on the addict and his family of origin than the Lulama Programme alone. This topic was chosen as the problem of drug abuse and its treatment poses an ever-increasing dilemma for the South Afriecan Health Care professions . In the literature study numerous researchers indicate that the family and the structure within it lead - to and aggravate drug addiction . The young child involved in the triangle, or the need to maintain the equilibrium within the family for survival , are just a few examples mentioned . Further, a look is taken at what some theorists see as intergenerational family therapy and how it is applied. The theorists that were discussed were Bowen, Boszormenyi-Nagy

and Spark and Napier. Against this background a programme including intergenerational family therapy was designed and applied to a section of the population at Lulama. This was consequently compared to a section of the populaton which only went through the Lulama Programme. The results indicated that the null hypothesis had to be accepted for the researcher. The results indicated that there were significantly more differences between the two groups during post-testing on the measuring instruments used . Some of the differences were in favour of the Lulama Programme and others were in favour of the combined programme. There was also a significant difference in some dimensions in the level of growth that the two pro-

grammes had precipitated . Here too, there was a discrepancy in the success of the two programmes. The results also indicated that there were several problems. One of the main problems was that the sample was too small. The reason for this was the ethical and practical problems involved in obtaining the sample. Other questions suet, as the tests used and the length of the programme and the period between the pre- and post-testing also became an issue. It is the view of this researcher that research in this field is vitally important. It has become clear in this research that the programme including the intergenerational family therapy had limited success, more research has to be done before this becomes a programme that can be widely recommended.