Substance abuse refers to the excessive intake of psychoactive drugs, which can lead to emotional, social, and physical harm. The most misused drugs include tobacco, cannabis, alcohol, and cigarettes. Due to poor parenting techniques, most youths find themselves using drugs without the consent of their parents. This leads to many challenges in society due to poor character development. This brings about an important social issue affecting the current world by considering its effect and theories that can be used to examine it.
The primary victims affected by substance abuse in this setup are adolescents. They are at risk due to the surrounding environment they interact with. Most youths lack adequate parental care where morals are impacted (Mulder et al., 2021). They lack awareness of the effects that can arise due to drug usage. Most parents and guardians fail to supervise their children to get a clue about the activities they engage in. Failure to communicate and interact with them in a friendly manner result from their active engagement in jobs.
Family issues resulting from misunderstandings depress adolescents who end up on drugs. Cases of parents’ divorce make children lonely and stressed as they lack parental love from both parties (Cebollero et al., 2021). Sometimes, the family lifestyle influences the children’s attitudes toward drug abuse. Some parents use drugs in their children’s presence, making them adopt the trends. They grow up knowing there is no harm in abusing them, which becomes a daily habit.
The current prevalence rates and trends imply that some drugs are commonly abused by adolescents, especially in college. For instance, alcohol has been indicated as the most widely used substance. It has high addiction levels and is readily available as it is legalized in most countries. Marijuana use has also increased due to its availability making it being abused almost daily. Worsened emotional health, poor interaction modes, and increased stress have been identified as the most general trends. Additionally, most youths spend more time on phones and television screens, leading to parental conflicts.
Most programs have been implemented to curb the spread of drug abuse usage. Since most adolescents are found in a school setup, Project SUCCESS (Schools Using Coordinated Community Efforts to Strengthen Students) is a program that has been used to educate them on the effects of drugs. It mainly targets adolescents in the age bracket of 14-18, and the target comes from low to middle-class levels (Gaffney et al., 2021). The program created a partnership agency between an alternative school and the agency to offer guidance sessions.
Individual counseling program has also been used in many scenarios. Therapists have been utilized when school-going individuals suspected to have engaged themselves in drugs are summoned. They are given relevant information and guidelines that can help them abstain. Parenting education has also cooperated in the efforts to reduce drug use among college students. This awareness reduces peer pressure from the friends they interact with. The World Health Organization has also developed campaigns to help prevent substance abuse across the nations (Akanni et al., 2020). The National Authority for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA) has been educating adolescents on the negative impacts of using drugs.
These programs concerned with the subject issue are essential to social work. The educators learn important strategies to apply in various settings to educate the affected groups. They develop community outreach activities that educate society on the harm resulting from such acts. Research in schools on the damages which have occurred can apply data from NACADA for analysis. Therefore, they form a basis and support system for implementing preventive measures.
During biopsychosocial development, considerations of social, biological, and psychosocial factors are done to examine the impacts of substance abuse on the adolescent. Changes that occur include abstract thinking and the influence of absorbing other people’s perspectives. Individual decision-making becomes difficult due to the existing environment. Biologically, sexual identity is realized, influencing social relationships with peers. All these changes affect the discussed social issue since the perspectives developed to increase the chances of substance abuse. In schools, some students abuse drugs and influence others through peer pressure.
Social Factors Contributing to Substance Abuse
Bullying is a common social factor making most youths develop addictive behaviors. It occurs when innocent youths are forced to use drugs under conditions of punishment if they fail to obey the demands. Such victims develop mental health disorders, smoke regularly, and feel social isolation. Cases of low self-esteem and combined bullying make individuals rely on alcohol to cope with their helplessness (MacMillan et al., 2021). Newly admitted students are majorly affected when the juniors harass them in their interactions.
Association with drug smugglers is another social factor that has increased cases of drug use. These individuals illegally acquire drugs from suppliers and sell them to adolescents. Peer relationships also influence users; some people love engaging in some activities like drinking together as lovers.
Environmental Factors Contributing to Substance Abuse
The environment where adolescents live influence their views and perspectives toward drug abuse. These factors can be related to school, family, or neighborhood. Teachers and tutors are supposed to be role models to their students. Additionally, they have roles of impacting them with positive knowledge, which can make them change their perspectives on life. However, some teachers abuse drugs before coming to teach, making the pupils develop a negative attitude, and some begin to copy this behavior. They eventually become addicts, and since they lack enough money to buy them, they miss lessons. Effects such as hallucinations and brain damage affect their studies negatively.
Some students influence others by showing them standard methods of using drugs. Some inject into their bodies, drink, or smoke. This gives them the courage to use them as they want to explore more. Some adolescents come from abusive homes without peace and comfort (Heilig et al., 2021). To calm their emotions of hunger and loneliness, they turn to drugs to get rid of the negative energy. Parents who are too busy with work lack time to interact with their children to know their life experiences and problems. This allows them to interact with neighbors who may secretly induce them into drugs.
Positive factors contributing to these issues include education, guidance and counseling sessions, rules governing drug access, and effective parenting. In most schools, the teacher educates the children on the negative impacts of drug abuse. This makes them practice preventive measures such as abstaining. Guidance and counseling sessions create forums for interaction where questions can be asked and answered. They become aware of handling peer pressure and say no to any individuals persuading them into this act.
Most parents have become responsible with their children by monitoring the activities they anticipate while at home. Restriction to phone access while in school has been emphasized, and in case of use, only educational content should be learned. On the other hand, the government has set governing rules and policies. Individuals who have not attained the age of 18 should not be found using any drug. This has made the children focus on their studies since they cannot access them.
Negative factors include social media influence, idleness, desire to adventure, and ease of access to drugs. Platforms like Facebook and Twitter expose drug users publicly without limiting the audience. Teens using phones develop an interest in their lifestyles and a desire to copy them. Video clips found on YouTube demonstrating the injection of drugs are being watched, and the outcome is experimentation. This knowledge available makes the youths become professionals even in the comfort of their homes without suspicion from parents.
Idleness makes most people desire to explore new things. This creates time for adolescents to explore drugs and experience the results. Notions that drug make one feel happy and relaxed have influenced many people negatively. Access to drugs in schools is a current trend creating a negative impact. Some pupils sneak them into school and sell them to others. In some cases, the support staff has been reported to cooperate with some indisciplined candidates to make them available. Conclusively, these negative social and environmental factors contribute to drug and substance abuse development.
Negative impacts resulting from substance abuse affect not only the individual but also the community. Affected people experience deterioration of health when increased use leads to liver failure. Mental health disorders develop with time, eventually leading to brain damage (Saberi Zafarghandi et al., 2021). Alternatively, the breathing system is greatly affected by smoking. Memory loss, poor decision-making, and attention make daily living difficult. The community drags in development as more money is dedicated to rehabilitation centers. Social problems like stealing, prostitution, and divorce cases are highly reported. Less workforce leading to decreased productivity results from unhealthy employees. Most individuals lose jobs due to their insufficiency and consistency.
The ProSEAD acronym can be applied to this topic to influence the development of programs to prevent substance abuse. It encourages the engagement of all the social organizations starting from the family, church, and community foundation, in cooperating towards fulfilling the desired goals. Further, it assesses the extent to which the set programs operate to ascertain that they only anticipate positive activities. A historical study is done where the origin of some behaviors and practices is evaluated. Through this, the most appropriate strategies to curb the usage are adopted.
Personal Interventions to Deal with Substance Abuse
Individual victims can deal with the effects resulting from substance abuse through self-treatment strategies. Most importantly, the clients can attend rehabilitation programs where they will get the necessary guidance. They will be educated on what to do to change the developed behaviors. Individual therapy sessions will be carried out to enable positive behavior change. Further, the drug detoxification process, where they are withdrawn from the body system, enables symptom withdrawal. Victims can also see the environment setup if it influences them to use the drugs even after developing the urge to quit. Engaging in activities that keep the mind busy, like studying, leaves no room for idleness.
Family therapy can be adopted where close members try to give advice and repair the existing broken relationship. Through this, an individual feels loved and dedicates more time to them (Schmits & Glowacz, 2021). Further, healthier skills learned can be applied, such as eating healthy and exercising. Medications taken to manage withdrawal symptoms create an essential remedy. Regular hospital checkups for counseling promote sobriety in the victims.
These interventions are effective since they involve individual decision-making. The victims are not forced to adopt these strategies. These are the best approaches for the clients as they incorporate follow-up activities. They can be able to measure the effectiveness by considering their behavior change. Specialists are involved, and their therapy is diverse and can fit everyone despite their differences.
Ecological Systems Theory
An American psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner developed the ecological systems theory, which can be applied to this particular topic. The critical point explained is the importance of examining how people behave in different environments. This enables one to develop an understanding of their behavior. Different systems are outlined: microsystem, which refers to a person’s immediate environment and may be direct family, schoolmates, and neighbors. The mesosystem is where people interact in different parts of an environment, like an adolescent interacting with a teacher at school (Fischer et al., 2021). An individual indirect environment is known as the ecosystem, and the macrosystem consists of diverse societal values, beliefs, and norms.
The above theory informs the understanding of this topic by considering various factors contributing to substance abuse. The social, environmental, and cultural factors can be traced easily by examining the distinct systems. Activities taking place in the surroundings significantly impact individuals, beginning from the birth process to adolescence. Individuals growing up in environments that support these habits are likely to become great addicts compared to those raised in communities that prioritize the impact of morals.
Role of Social Workers in Education Concerning Substance Abuse
Social workers are the most effective personnel in educating individuals, families, and organizations on preventive measures to reduce drug abuse cases. They have been equipped with skills that enable them to access clients’ needs beyond the mere explanations they give. Some victims fail to give the authentic experiences they had before, making the diagnosis difficult. They must ensure they get reports from close relatives and friends.
They should possess practical decision-making skills and apply them while offering guidance and counseling sessions. Poor skills may create communication barriers, and the victims may end up frustrated (Harrikari et al., 2021). Creating awareness in public is done through sensitization, where people are educated on abstaining measures. Posters with educative pictures and writings should be placed in public places for easy understanding. Further, they should create community organizations where morals are passed to the youths for character improvement.
My worldview, personal background, values, biases, and assumptions affect the conceptualization of this problem by challenging my mind to be more creative. All the above issues must be considered to come up with an effective intervention. However, since views vary from one perspective to another, some assumptions must be implemented to avoid discrimination. To emphasize, all individuals in society should be treated equally, and whenever they go against expected rules, they should be guided appropriately rather than viewed as outcasts.
References
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