Narcotics
Anonymous, an international, community-based association of
recovering drug addicts, provides peer support to other addicts
who desire a drug-free outcome. We are fully committed to collaborating
with professionals and community organizations with similar
goals. This paper identifies key factors affecting NA's interactions
with others, points out means by which professionals can contact
Narcotics Anonymous, long-established means of direct interaction
between NA and professionals, a number of programs designed
to facilitate client introduction and entry into Narcotics Anonymous,
and a description of what clients will find when they attend
NA meetings and meet NA members. The paper addresses a number
of areas where professionals may encounter difficulties in relating
with Narcotics Anonymous, and closes by identifying ways to
resolve any problems that may arise when interacting with NA.
Narcotics Anonymous is one of the world's oldest and largest
associations of recovering drug addicts. The NA approach to
recovery from drug addiction is completely nonprofessional,
relying on peer support. We believe the NA program works as
well as it does primarily because of the therapeutic value of
addicts helping other addicts.
Narcotics Anonymous is organized locally as self-governing,
self-supporting groups adhering to a common set of principles,
adaptations of the Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions of Alcoholics
Anonymous. Local NA groups are organized worldwide via NA's
international delegate assembly, called the World Service Conference,
and secretariat, the World Service Office, headquartered in
Los Angeles, USA.
The first Narcotics Anonymous meeting was held in 1947 in Lexington,
Kentucky, as part of a USA federal public health hospital program.
An independent, community-based group using Lexington principles
that was formed in Los Angeles in 1953 became the root of today's
Narcotics Anonymous. Today, Narcotics Anonymous has nearly 20,000
registered weekly meetings in 70 countries around the world,
the greatest concentrations being in the USA (16,000) and in
Canada, Latin America, and Western Europe (1,000 each). |
