Dr. Victor Garcia, Distinguished University Professor and
director of MARTI, and medical anthropologist Dr. Anna Pagano presented on
their NIDA-funded research project “The Anexo: A New Alcoholics Anonymous
Treatment in Latino Communities,” recently at the Addiction Health Services Research
(AHSR) Conference.
Garcia and Pagano’s presentation centered on Latino
immigrants’ use of anexos, a variant
of Alcoholics Anonymous (AA). The anexo is a self-sustaining residential
recovery house with a structured living arrangement and nightly AA meetings.
They are community-based and provide treatment for immigrants with substance
abuse disorders. Garcia and Pagano presented on residents perceptions of the
benefits and drawbacks of this program.
Dr. Pagano is an
associate research scientist at the Prevention Research Center in Oakland,
California. The Prevention Research Center aims to build safer
environments by emphasizing the collaboration of sociologists, psychologists,
anthropologists, and epidemiologists to understand how the environment affects
health behaviors. The primary focus is on the consumption of alcohol, tobacco,
and other drug use and the consequences of such use.
The AHSR Conference was held October 14-16, in Marina del
Rey, California, and had a central theme of “Navigating a Changing Healthcare
Landscape” that addressed cutting edge research issues and methodologies in the
field of addiction health services.