Human services: Substance abuse counseling

Human services: Substance abuse counseling

Introduction

Imagine that young are sitting on a bench in a busy park. Imagine that you are watching all the people that are passing. There are high chances that many of those people are dealing with a substance abuse issue, whether knowingly or unknowingly.  Research has it that millions of people do suffer from substance abuse every year, and it is the most common problem in America (Richards & O'Hara, 2014).  The term substance abuse refers to the habitual usage of a mind altering substance, and it can be alcohol or drugs. Many of the victims may see that they are okay and blessed in some things, but the truth is that those substances fracture their souls and harm their bodies.  The abuse of substances like drugs or alcohol always inflicts a person’s mind as well.  People suffering from substance abuse do not like themselves. For example, somebody who has hot temper can become violent when under the influence of alcohol or drugs. That is the reason it is an issue that requires the intervention of human services to help the victims overcome as well as conquer the dependencies on those substances such as alcohol and drugs.

Needs Analysis

Substance abuse is the chronic or habitual use of any chemical substance that can alter the mind of the body other than the medically warranted purposes resulting in effects that are detrimental to an individual. (Craig & Baucum, 2001). Substance abuse in this paper refers to the misuse of legal products and illegal products like cocaine, and cannabis that are harmful to the well-being of persons and the welfare of the society.  When people’s abuse substances for a long time, they reach a point where they become substance dependence.  At this juncture, there is uncontrollable craving as well as the use of the substances despite their potential harm to the person or society. It incorporates both the legal and illegal substances. Individuals that is dependent on substances become unable to quit by themselves and need treatment to help them stop using those substances.

Statement of the problem

Substance abuse, especially among the youth In America, is increasing every day despite its effects on both individuals and the community. Nevertheless, the victims of substance abuse show signs of cultural influence. Many of the tribes have the cultures of dealing as well as brewing substances in their homes, thus exposing the young men to such substances at an early age. The consumption of those drugs and alcohol increase due to peer pressure when those young people reach adolescence (Kawaguchi, 2004).  Many of those young people prefer the strong local spirit put on miniature sachets, and it goes at very low prices. Consequently, the young generation is having spoilage, rape, imprisonment, joblessness, homelessness, and unwanted pregnancies. Forced marriages, prostitution, and others die from HIV/AIDS.  Because of these problems, the future of America is not only at the state of doubt, but it is also in a terrible dilemma because the youth are the future parents and leaders.  The solution to the problem is to find the challenges of substance use among then youth in America and then apply the substance abuse counseling and a better theoretical approach to remedy the situation.

Types of abused substances

The youth abuse both the legal as well as the illegal substances. Legal substances include the socially acceptable and psychoactive such as over the counter and prescribed medicines (Parry, 1998). In addition to the above drugs with medicinal value, there are also other substances abused by the youth such as solvents in glue, nicotine and inhalants, alcohol beverages, petrol and nail polish. Illegal substances are those prohibited and whose use, trading or possession constitutes a criminal offense. Those substances include cocaine powder, examine, ecstasy, crack, morphine, fentanyl, heroin, cannabis, mandrax, methamphetamine, flunitrazepam, wellconal and opium (Craig & Baucum, 2001).

The causes of substance abuse among the youth today

Young people are coming to the health professionals or human services professionals for assistance use substances as a means of coping with emotional or situational distress (Rose, 2000). The influence of peer groups also is a key factor that leads to substance abuse among the young people. Generally, in the current social set up, youths learn by modeling –exposure from their peers due to anticipated rewards for deliquescence engagement.  As with sex, substance issues may remain secretive for the adolescents. That is particularly so when the young people perceive possible adverse consequences in case of disclosure (e.g. judged, refused accommodation or parents informed).

Application of cognitive behavioral treatment for the substance abuse problem

There are around ten years elapsed since there was the emergence of cognitive behavioral therapies by Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck. Academic literature began to embrace the theory in the 1990s as a forming treatment for the victims of substance abuse and dependency. Cognitive behavioral therapy abbreviated as CBT is an established form of treatment for various issues, and its tenet is that people’s problems arise from their evaluations, beliefs, and interpretation in light of life events. Currently, CBT has universal applicability, and it is one of the few treatments empirically supported by the American Psychological Association to handle various issues and disorders (NIDA, 1998).  Specific uses of CBT in substance abuse application include motivational interviewing, contingency management therapies, and cognition-focused drug counseling.  All those are variations of CBT. It is a short-term comparative intervention, and it takes twelve to sixteen weeks sessions conducted in community-based outpatient settings. It is also flexible enough to have adaptation to individual patient therapeutic needs.  Those features make it an ideal therapy for some clients though it first has an outage for only heroin addicts.

Human service agents advise that CBT is crucial for substance abusers although there can be other therapies combined with it to make the outcome more successful.  Given the complexity of addiction that involves bio-psycho-social mechanisms, the guiding principle for those human service agents is a combination of therapeutic approaches tailored to individual patients.  The agents and other medical practitioners have it that CBT is maintaining effectiveness when used in conjunction with other treatment options. Those treatment options include self-help groups, vocational counseling, pharmacotherapy, family and couples therapy, and parenting skill training. Substance abuse is a bio-psychological phenomenon, and CBT therapy is very promising as many clients are showing positive responses (NIDA, 1998).  It incorporates the client’s social as well as environmental context to reinforce the strength of CBT’s modality since it is a type of treatment that emerged from moral or disease models.

The approach of CBT is to start from where the client is. To make the client maintain motivation on the therapy, the social workers ensure that the client is comfortable with the therapy and within the client-professional relationship. There is a mutual agreement of the treatment goals by the client and the therapist with an emphasis on the client’s identified problems and consideration of the skills and knowledge of the professional.  The collaboration fosters the creation of a good working relationship and helps avoid a passive stance by the therapist as it assures that the treatment is most relevant and useful to the patient (NIDA, 1998). The maintenance of that client-professional collaboration makes CBT vital in deconstructing the notion of personal deficiency and blame that the client might be having over the years of struggling to conquer substance dependency.  It helps to challenge the negative thoughts that contribute to harmful behaviors that according to pure CBT theory culminate to self-regulated change and more positive outcomes (Fisher, 1995).

Demographics of chosen population

The demographics in this document represent the survey done by MTF last year, 2014 regarding alcohol and drug abuse that comprise substance abuse problem. The results show that the use of electronics cigarettes is high among the youth in America and of those, only 14.2 percent that view it as harmful to their health.  There is also the continuous use of marijuana use among high school seniors whereby only 36. 1% of the users in these groups say that the use of marijuana puts the user at a great risk.  The study also shows that marijuana smoking exceeds cigarette smoking whereby among the high school seniors 21.2% use marijuana, compared to 13.6 percent who smoke cigarettes. Tobacco use is also heightening with 22.95 of 12 graders using hooker in the year 2014. 

References

Craig, J. & Baucum, D. (2001). Human development. (9th Ed.). London: Prentice Hall.

Kawaguchi, D. (2004). Peer effects of substance use among American teenagers. Journal of Population Economics, (17), 351-367.

NIDA (1998). A cognitive-behavioral approach: treating cocaine addiction. Rockville, MD: Author.

NIH (2014). Monitoring the future survey, overview of findings 2014. 

Parry, H. (1998). Substance abuse in South Africa: country report focusing on young persons. 

Richards, S., & O'Hara, W. (2014). The Oxford handbook of depression and comorbidity.

Rose, J. (2000). High risk youth: alcohol and other drug use. 

Sherry Roberts is the author of this paper. A senior editor at MeldaResearch.Com in custom essay paper writing if you need a similar paper you can place your order from custom research paper services.