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Models of adaptation to termination of the SSI/SSDI addiction disability

Emergent Issues in the Field of Drug Abuse

ISBN: 978-0-76230-537-7, eISBN: 978-1-84950-033-3

Publication date: 27 December 1999

Abstract

On December 31, 1996, the U.S. Congress officially ended its funding of the Social Security Administration's program of supplemental security income (SSI) and social security disability income (SSDI) cash and Medicaid benefits for drug addiction and alcoholism (DA&A). This social policy change is part of the U.S. Congress welfare reform, which will impact more than 26,000 Illinois residents, thousands in Cook County alone. Our study seeks to illuminate the meaning of these benefits to a group of approximately 40 former Cook County recipients. We explored the utility and meaning of the cash and Medicaid benefits to at least three types of recipients (Good Citizens, Hustlers, and Lost Souls) that emerged from a series of focus groups. Our paper studies the differences between the three types of recipients in their use of cash (e.g., from paying for housing and living essentials to purchasing drugs) and Medicaid (e.g., medications and drug treatment) benefits. Findings and conclusions also generate important insights into how recent social policy changes impact the drug-using community and produce new health and social problems for both the former recipients and society-at-large.

Citation

Goldstein, P.J., Anderson, T.L., Schyb, I. and Swartz, J. (1999), "Models of adaptation to termination of the SSI/SSDI addiction disability", Levy, J.A., Stephens, R.C. and McBride, D.C. (Ed.) Emergent Issues in the Field of Drug Abuse (Advances in Medical Sociology, Vol. 7), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 215-238. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1057-6290(00)80011-X

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

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