Alcohol and Substance abuse Vulnerable Population Essay Example
Alcohol and Substance abuse Vulnerable Population Essay Example

Alcohol and Substance abuse Vulnerable Population Essay Example

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  • Pages: 11 (2959 words)
  • Published: May 5, 2022
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Vulnerable populations are considered to include the ethnic and racial minorities, economically disadvantaged, elderly, low income earners, the homeless, low income children, individuals with chronic illness such as HIV and those with other mental and health conditions such as alcohol and substance abuse. The vulnerable population is divided into three domains, psychological, physical and social domains. Individuals with physical needs includes the high risk mothers as well as infants, the disabled and chronically ill, people living with HIV, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia and heart diseases.

The vulnerable population in the social realm include people living in abusive families, immigrants, homeless and lastly the refugees. Lastly, vulnerable population in the psychological domain includes individuals with chronic mental conditions such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, major depression and individuals w

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ith a history of alcohol and substance abuse (Jacobson & Sacco, 2012). This paper does provide an analysis of the vulnerable population of alcoholics, the paper outlines the program and other interventions that will be used towards serving these individuals towards elevating their health standards.

Alcohol and substance abuse represent a significant burden on the public health and around the globe. It is considered as a form of drug addiction that affects the alcoholics through a myriad of methods. Mostly, the individuals affected have characteristics of intense and uncontrollable drug craving as well a compulsive drug seeking that does persist even in the face of devastating consequences. It needs to be understood that addiction towards alcohol and other drugs does affect multiple brain circuits such as those that are involved in learning and memory, reward and motivation circuit and lastly the neuronal circuits involved in inhibitory control toward

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behavior (Truxillo et al., 2002).

Thus, addiction to any form of drugs is widely considered as a disease to the brain. Some individuals are more susceptible towards becoming addicted than others depending on the interplay between exposure to the drugs, genetic make-up and the environmental influences. While an individual may initially choose to take drugs and alcohol, over time the consequences of prolonged exposure in the brain functioning does compromise the ability of one to choose, therefore seeking as well as consuming the drug does become a compulsive, self-elusive problem that does defeat the affected person having self-control and will power against alcohol and drug usage (Jacobson & Sacco, 2012).

Addiction, then can be considered as not just a form of compulsive drug taking but rather a form of disease that has wide and far reaching ramifications on a person’s health and social domains. This is because an individual engaging in alcohol and substance abuse is at an increased risk of developing other physical as well as mental illness that are related to the drugs themselves. Moreover, there are dysfunctional behaviors that will result from the drug abuse hence interfering with the individual’s normal functioning within the family, workplace and broadly within the community. Thus, with the myriad effects seen from alcohol and substance abuse, that do affect an individual’s way of life, treatment strategies that are effective need to be put in place. In most instances, treatment options that are effective do incorporate several components, each of them being directed towards a particular aspect of the illness together with its consequences (Marinho et al., 2016).

Treating addiction hence does help individuals towards stopping using the drugs, achieve

productive functioning within the family and at work, be able to maintain a lifestyle that is drug free and lastly be productive towards the society and community itself. Due to addiction towards alcohol and other substances being a form of the disease, most individuals are not capable of stopping using the drugs. Thus, these addicts in most instances require long term repeated episodes of care so as to achieve the ultimate goal of having sustained abstinence as well as recovery in their lives (Angus et al., 2014). This can be achieved through the various scientific researches and clinical approaches that have demonstrated the value of continued care towards treating addiction.

There are various medical interventions that need to be served to the vulnerable population of alcoholics and other substance abusers so as to comprehensively deal with the effects of addiction (Jacobson & Sacco, 2012). The reasons for having a comprehensive multifactorial approach towards dealing with addiction are embedded in the following principles of effective treatment:

  • Addiction is a complex though treatable disease that does affect the functions of the brain and behavior.
  • There is no single treatment approach that is appropriate for everybody.
  • Treatment needs to always be readily available.
  • Effective treatment regimen has to attend to the multiple needs of the individual and not just the drug abuse alone
  • Adhering to the treatment for an ample period of time is very critical.
  • Use of behavioral therapies that include the family or rather group counselling are often the most used forms of managing drug abuse.
  • Medications serve as an important element in treating majority of individuals more so when they are combined with behavioral therapy
  • An

individual’s services as well as treatment need to be assessed continually and also be modified whenever necessary so as to ensure that the treatment does meet the changing needs of the individual.

  • Treatment does not need to be voluntarily for it to be effective.
  • Use of drugs does have to be monitored continually during the period of therapy so as to avoid lapses (Truxillo et al., 2002).
  • With the above treatment principles in mind for the individuals that abuse alcohol and other substances, a multi-dimensional program is developed and considered in this paper that will be able to effectively address the issues and therapies that are required for the vulnerable group discussed in this paper. The approaches considered do address the certain aspects of addiction to drugs as well as the consequences towards the individual, society and family. The approaches are further intended to serve as a supplement to other treatment programs that have been in practice (Marinho et al., 2016).

    The first approach for the program in treating the alcoholics as a vulnerable population is based in the pharmacotherapy of the drugs that have been shown through research to aid in ceasing of alcohol addiction. The drugs that will be used in managing alcohol addiction will be; Naltrexone, Acamprosate, Disulfiram and Topiramate.

    Naltrexone - Function by blocking the opioid receptors that are involved in the rewarding effects of drinking as well as the craving of alcohol. This drug has shown it does reduce relapses of the problem of drinking in patients.

    Acamprosate - It acts in the gamma aminobutyric acid as well as the glutamate neurotransmitter system and it does lessen the symptoms and signs of protracted withdrawal

    like anxiety, insomnia, dysphoria and restlessness.

    Disulfiram - It interferes with the degradation of alcohol thus leading in the accumulation of acetaldehyde that in turn does produce an unpleasant reaction which entails nausea, flushing and palpitations from the individual taking alcohol.

    Topiramate -This drugs functions by increasing the inhibitory neurotransmission of GABA as well as reducing the stimulatory neurotransmission of glutamate. This drug has shown through studies to be effective towards improving multiple drinking outcomes.

    While a couple of behavioral therapies showing to be effective towards the treatment of alcohol addiction, it has not been shown however any additive effects that do exist between the behavioral treatment together with pharmacotherapy treatment. Majority of studies have indicated that getting some of help being the most important factor towards treating alcohol and substance abuse among addicts (Truxillo et al., 2002). Behavioral therapies do provide incentives to the addicts so as to abstain from drug abuse, change their attitudes as well as behaviors that are related to drug abuse and lastly help in increasing their skills in life of handling stressful situations and the environmental cues that may be the triggers of intense cravings to the drugs themselves. This paper considers the following behavioral treatment approaches as part of the program that will be used in treating addiction of alcohol and substance abuse.

    Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

    In this approach it will serve in preventing relapses while treating individuals that have problems with drinking as well as in cocaine-addicted individuals. The cognitive behavioral strategies that are based in this form of therapy are based on the theory which premises on the development of maladaptive behavioral patterns such as substance abuse and learning processes playing

    a critical role. This form of therapy enables individuals in identifying and correcting problematic behaviors through applying a variety of various skills that will be used to stop alcohol and drug abuse by addressing the various problems that to co-occur with it (Gilchrist et al., 2014).

    The central tenet in this form of behavioral therapy is anticipating the problems that are likely to occur thus enhancing the patient’s self-control through helping the develop effective coping strategies. The specific techniques that will be included will include exploring the positive as well as negative consequences of having continued drug use, there will be self-monitoring so as to recognize the cravings earlier as well as identify the situations that may put one at the risk of using the drugs. Lastly the program will develop strategies that will be used for coping with the cravings by avoiding the high risk situations (Sundstrom et al., 2016).

    Statistics from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health done in 2013 indicated the extent t which the youths, new initiates and the other age cohorts are diversely affected with alcohol and substance abuse addiction.

    The figure above represents the nationwide drug and alcohol trends that were observed from 2002 up to 2012. It is evidences that in 2002 13% of Americans aged 12 and above had used some illicit drugs or had abused some psychotherapeutic medications within the past month. By 2012, the numbers had risen up to 13.2% mostly of Americans using predominantly Marijuana followed by alcohol as drugs of abuse (Jacobson & Sacco, 2012).

    The social cultural norms identified as being the precipitants for this vulnerable group that did play a role in in

    initiation thereafter maintenance of the drug use was seen observed to be a complex chain of events with multiple factors that did contribute towards the onset of initiation and thereafter addiction.

    The social and cultural norms for individuals engaging in alcohol and substance abuse include the following:

    • Parental influence- Parents do have a tremendous influence in their children. This is because children of smoker parents were twice likely to become smokers. Parents that did disapprove smoking did make the adolescent children less likely to be initiated towards smoking. More so, studies have shown a strong correlation of mothers who smoked having their adolescent females becoming smokers too (Gilchrist et al., 2014).
    • Family structure- Studies have indicated that higher levels of parental education as well as the socio-economic variables do have an inverse relationship with use of tobacco and other psyche-active substances within the adolescents. The rate of prevalence of smoking was seen to be increased in the low socio-economic families and low educational status within the family. Issues such as marital discord, divorce within the parents, single parenting are often associated with alcohol and drug use within the families (Sundstrom et al., 2016). Parents that have poor parenting and monitoring of their children will likely cause their children to abuse drugs.

    Other socio economic norms that influence individuals that are abusing alcohol and drugs in a negative manner include poor role models, advertising and promotion of use of liquor and other substances, availability of the drugs and lastly the knowledge and attitude the vulnerable group of drug addicts they have towards alcohol and substances of abuse.

    With the above socio-cultural norms, the program to be rolled will help

    in assisting the vulnerable group of addicts will act by ensuring that the precipitants that fuel use of drugs are minimized and controlled. This will thus ensure that the vulnerable group of individuals are able to attend the therapies and other forms of health services that will be offered to them.  For individuals that are influenced by peer pressure, strategies of cutting off the links with the peer group causing the individual to partake in drug use will be employed. For individuals that have an attitude and knowledge that does encourage taking drugs will be taken through rehabilitative sessions whereby the full adverse effects of drugs are expounded to them and thereafter made to change their opinions towards drugs (Pederson et al., 2013).

    In order for the program of ensuring the vulnerable group doe get the services enumerated above, there will be need to partner with two organizations so as to foster fast and quick delivery of services to the drug addicts. The first organization to partner with will be the National Institute on Drug Abuse. In this partnership that will be forged up, NIDA with its sister organization Center for Clinical Trials Network will ensure the behavioral therapies being offered in the program provided in this paper are met sufficiently. More so, the pharmacological treatment will be integrated with the findings this organization has proved overtime by using the medications that have demonstrated efficacy across the broad range of the ailments suffered by the drug addicts.

    The second organization to partner with in order to achieve the goals of the program intended for the vulnerable population will be UNC Medical Center. This organization will assist in

    identifying the vulnerable that will be enrolled in the program by using their existing data on the vulnerable group. The other assistance that will be offered by this organization will be financial assistance as well as professional personnel that will serve in the program for it to be effective.

    The first funding will be from the Federal Budget for Mental and Addiction Treatment which co-works with Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as being the lead agency towards funding for programs that implement effective services in individuals with alcohol and substance use. The factors that need to be met so as to obtain are have sound policies that will ensure the program being implemented will have an impact on society and the actions outlined in the program must have proven demonstration of their applicability while implementing them.

    The second source of funding will be from the state through the National Council for Behavioral Health. This works in association with state associations that provide addiction services. The requirements that need to be met so as to receive funding from the state include the program being implemented needs to offer affordable care as manipulated in the Affordable care act as well have services of consultation, training as well as technical assistance programs that will help the national healthcare department towards adapting to the demands of greater accountability and increased efficient and better quality to all with demonstration of measurable outcomes and an improved customer service delivery.

    The third source that will provide financial assistance will be the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation. This foundation will offer funds to the program if the only the health services priorities that are offered by

    the program are in tandem with their vision of reducing health disparities within the globe more so, the mental health disparities.

    The last source of funding will be from the CIGNA foundation. This foundation will require that in order to be funded, the following criteria is first met; Promote wellness, Build Awareness, help people manage their health challenges, Expand opportunities of reaching across barriers such as gender, ethnicity or the physical conditions of the recipients. The program need also to tap into the talents of the individuals that are being treated such as supporting them to be future leaders.

    In conclusion, it is evidenced from the above arguments that alcoholics and other substance users are in dire need of programs that should aid them from quitting the usage of drugs. Alcohol and other substances create a dependency in the individuals using them that once hooked up, becomes an uphill task to quit without episodes of relapses. These individuals if they fail to obtain the desired help will deteriorate and lead miserable lives unworthy to call for. Hence, it is in the premises of the health program created in the preceding arguments above providing measures, principles and services that will be geared towards alleviating the issue of addiction created by drug and substance usage. The yardstick for this lies in ensuring the program is implemented and the various strategies outlined out are achieved t the maximum.

    References

    1. Jacobson, J. M., & Sacco, P. (2012). Employee Assistance Program Services for Alcohol and Other Drug Problems: Implications for Increased Identification and Engagement in Treatment. American Journal On Addictions
    2. Truxillo, D. M., Bauer, T. N., & Paronto, M. E. (2002). Reactions to

    Organizational Alcohol Testing and Treatment Programs. Journal Of Business And Psychology

  • Marinho, R. T., Costa, A., Pires, T., Raposo, H., Vasconcelos, C., Polónia, C., & ... Nogueira, A. M. (2016). A multidimensional education program at substance dependence treatment centers improves patient knowledge and hepatitis C care. BMC Infectious Diseases
  • Angus, C., Scafato, E., Ghirini, S., Torbica, A., Ferre, F., Struzzo, P., & ... Brennan, A. (2014). Cost- effectiveness of a programme of screening and brief interventions for alcohol in primary care in Italy. BMC Family Practice (Jacobson & Sacco, 2012 Truxillo et al., 2002 Marinho et al., 2016 Angus et al., 2014 Gilchrist et al., 2014 Sundstrom et al., 2016 Pederson et al., 2013)
  • Pedersen, M. U., Hesse, M., & Thylstrup, B. (2013). Research in substance abuse treatment: Contributions by the Centre for Alcohol and Drug Research. Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy
  • Sundström, C., Gajecki, M., Johansson, M., Blankers, M., Sinadinovic, K., Stenlund-Gens, E., & Berman, A. H. (2016). Guided and Unguided Internet-Based Treatment for Problematic Alcohol Use – A Randomized Controlled Pilot Trial. Plos ONE
  • Gilchrist, G., Moskalewicz, J., Nutt, R., Love, J., Germeni, E., Valkova, I., & ... Baldacchino, A. (2014). Understanding access to drug and alcohol treatment services in Europe: A multi-country service users' perspective. Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy
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