Contribution of selected psychological and social factors to relapse among recovering alcoholics in Asumbi and Jorgs Ark rehabilitation centres, Kenya

Abstract

Drug abuse is a major global problem and in Kenya there has been increasing drug and alcohol abuse with serious negative effects. Treatment and rehabilitation of alcoholism is expensive and in many cases non-conclusive. Treatment not only strains the national resources allocated to health but it drives families to poverty. Deaths from alcoholism are also a major loss to families and to society. Thus this study sought to find out the contribution of selected psychological and social factors to relapse among recovering alcoholics of Asumbi and Jorgs Ark rehabilitation centres in Kenya. The study adopted the descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised of 93 relapsed alcoholics and rehabilitation counsellors in Asumbi and Jorgs Ark rehabilitation centres in Kenya. A sample of 67 recovering alcoholics and 13 counsellors was drawn from the two purposively selected rehabilitation centres and used in the study. The study used two sets of questionnaires to collect data, one for relapsed alcoholics and another for rehabilitation counsellors. The questionnaires were piloted to establish their reliability by use of the Cronbach alfa method. A reliability coefficient of 0.84 was obtained for the questionnaires before the actual data collection. The data was then processed and analyzed using descriptive statistics including frequencies and percentages with the aid of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 for windows. The key findings of this study indicated that the selected psychological factor that mostly contributed to relapse was dwelling on resentment that causes anger due to unresolved conflict. The social factor that mostly contributed to relapse was hanging around alcoholic friends. The conclusion was that in view of the selected psychological factors, dwelling on resentment that causes anger due to unresolved conflict contributed to relapse. In the selected social factors, hanging out with alcoholic friends contributed most to relapse. Based on the major findings of this study, it is recommended that recovering alcoholics should be trained by counsellors on how to deal with anger due to unresolved conflict because it was a major reason for relapse. Rehabilitation centres are encouraged to strengthen individual counselling so as to solve these problems. It is also recommended that recovering alcoholics should be trained by rehabilitation counsellors on how to make and sustain meaningful relationships.