Ideologies and intervention strategies in an urban sample of drug-abuse agencies.

Abstract

The study assessed the usefulness of a "levels of analysis" criterion for distinguishing ideological orientations in an urban sample of agencies working with drug-abuse clients: 39 directors reported on their programs' goals, and on their personal philosophies about the causes of drug-abuse problems. The authors used Frank and Atkins' procedures to classify goals and philosophies based on individual, family/group, or social systems levels of analysis. As predicted, agency goals better accounted for program and organizational differences than directors' philosophies: Agencies with social systems level goals characteristically combined advocacy strategies with community networking and outreach activities. However, an unexpected finding was that agencies with individual level goals were most likely to work with poor and minority clients. The discussion emphasizes the importance of an ideological/organizational/community context for evaluating intervention strategies in community-based agencies.