Overview

Guest edited by:

Masood Zangeneh,

Factor-Inwentash, Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, Canada and

Christine Marie-Antoinette Wekerle

Faculty of Education The University of Western Ontario London, ON, Canada

Problems of substance use and mental health issue are widely visible and the high rate of co-occurrence of these disorders is well known in the field, yet little attention has been paid to this major societal problem. Major mental health and addiction institutions in the industrialized countries are facing with the crisis of funding cutbacks while similar institutions are barely functional in many underdeveloped/developing countries. In Canada, for example, one in four individuals suffers from mental illness or addiction while other three live with it.

The purpose of this Substance Use and Mental Health theme issue is to bring together the work of leading scientists, social scientists and other scholars. We are particularly interested in work that considers the impact of childhood maltreatment on mental health and substance abuse issues, recognizing the increased likelihood of both and co-morbid issues among violence survivors across the lifespan. As a chronic living environment and as related to a lack of safe, stable, nurturing relationship, maltreatment can continue as a 'lived' experience beyond the cessation of the maltreatment events. While mechanisms are emergent, maltreatment can be considered a demand factor for substance use, from a range of domains (stress and coping; motivations and outcome expectancies for enhancement; learned contingencies etc.). This issue is invitational towards work considering maltreatment, including prevention, theory-testing, health and service systems use, and under-studied populations.

Submissions are from a range of disciplines and settings including but not limited to: public health, mental health, addiction, psychology, sociology, neuroscience; law; government.