Addressing the needs of cultural minorities in drug treatment

Many drug treatment programs have difficulty recruiting, retaining, and successfully treating minority clients. Coupled with the fact that cultural diversity among clients is likely to increase, this consideration makes it critical that counselors systematically consider the client's ethnic and racial background during treatment. Experienced clinicians have recommended a number of approaches that counselors can adopt for increasing their cultural responsiveness to minority clients, thereby improving treatment effectiveness with this population of substance abusers.