Although clinicians have recently come to view children of alcoholics as primary patients who deserve treatment in their own right, such youngsters have little access to appropriate services. Experts estimate that less than five percent of children of alcoholic parents receive the help they need. Recent research indicates that the younger the…

A college junior's personal narrative tells how, with the help of a handful of caring adults, he managed to overcome a life of poverty with no parental support. He states that adults can help troubled adolescents by emphasizing their creativity and intellect, not their bad habits or inescapable backgrounds and history. (Author/MKA)