This presentation will give an overview of the background of the use of psychotherapy in the treatment of drug addiction and will refer to the utilization of psychotherapy treatment manuals and their fidelity. Therapeutic skills and the need for therapists to pay attention to the treatment needs of the addicted individual will be discussed. The presenter will emphasize the need for a comprehensive assessment of the client to include spirituality and will explain the role of the Black church. Additional discussion will focus on psychotherapy of drug addiction as only one component in the treatment armamentarium as well as the importance of engaging the patient and seeing psychotherapy as a form of a socialization process.
Sam Okpaku, MD, PhD, is the President, and founder of Center for Health, Culture, and Society in Nashville TN, USA. He is a graduate of Edinburgh University Medical School, Edinburgh, Scotland and holds a PH.D. in Social Research and Welfare from Brandeis University in Waltham, MA, USA. He has been on the faculties of the University of Pennsylvania Medical School and Yale University and was a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical School and a Senior Fellow at the Vanderbilt University Institute for Public Policy Studies. He has also served as Chairman and Professor, Department of Psychiatry at Meharry Medical College in Nashville. Dr. Okpaku is currently a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry, George Washington University, Washington, D.C. He is an awardee of the World Association of Cultural Psychiatrists for Pioneering Work in Cultural Psychiatry (2018) and also an awardee of the Society for Culture and Psychiatry for Creative Scholarship (2020).
Annelle Primm, M.D., MPH, is the Senior Medical Director of the Steve Fund, an organization focused on the mental health of young people of color. She is also a member of the Black Psychiatrists of America Council of Elders.
