Preventing Drug Use And Promoting Health Behaviors - Research Paper Example

Preventing Drug Use And Promoting Health Behaviors The fact that there are approximately 32 million Americans who are suffering from addiction disorders is more than alarming. Add to that information from the American Psychiatric Association which says that 5% of the population become alcohol dependent each year, that 1.2% become cannabis abusers, and that there are 0.2% new cocaine users (Capuzzi & Stauffer, 2012). What is therefore needed is substance abuse prevention programs, whether universal or selective. These substance abuse prevention programs are actually not pharmacologically based but rather involve the various aspects of the social environment of the patient, and this is perhaps the reason for their effectiveness. Substance Abuse Prevention Programs Among the programs for prevention of substance abuse, two important types are universal and selective. The universal type of program is directed towards everyone and is rather comprehensive as it involves all the various aspects of one’s social environment. An example of this is the PROSPER Partnership Model of substance abuse prevention where the states of Iowa and Pennsylvania are pioneers. On the other hand, selective substance abuse prevention programs are directed only towards high-risk groups. Two examples of this type of program include the Adolescents Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids program, or more popularly known as the ATLAS program, which is directed towards young male athletes with a drug abuse medical history; and the Focus on Families, or FOF, program, which is directed towards families with parents who are drug abusers. The PROSPER Partnership Model PROSPER, which is short for Promoting School-Community-University Partnerships to Enhance Resilience, is actually a community-based universal intervention program which mobilizes and sustains community-based teams in several local communities in Iowa and Pennsylvania that implement evidence-based programs. Moreover, among the important features of the PROSPER project are an intervention focused on the family during the 6th grade and one focused on the school in the 7th grade (Spoth et al., 2007). The PROSPER Partnership Model is led by the educators of the Cooperative Extension Service, or CES, which is known as the land grant university outreach arm (Mincemoyer et al., 2008). In the PROSPER Partnership model, there is cooperation among several educators, local schools, community agencies, parents and their children, particularly those affected by substance abuse. The goal is recovery from substance abuse through the cooperation of various areas of the community and the environment of the affected youth while following around three developmental phases. The first phase, which is usually known as the organizational phase, has a normal length of 6 to 8 months and usually consists of partnership formation activities like the recruitment of key members, undergoing training while adopting the key elements of the model, decision-making concerning programming goals which are based on the participant’s immediate needs and resources, and defining components of the team. The second phase, which is known as the initial operations phase, is all about the selection of appropriate programs and policies for those affected by substance abuse and implementing them. The duration of the program or policy depends on several factors such as the nature of the program, funding issues as well as other factors (Mincemoyer et al., 2008). The Cooperative Extension Service, which is in-charge of all the activities associated with the PROSPER Partnership Model, is a community-based organization and not one that belongs to the government. The role of the government in support of the PROSPER Partnership Model is providing them with federal funds to the total budget for the Extension. State and local governments have the responsibility of allocating such funds to various services and programs. Thus, it is the duty of the CES to make sure that there is strong support for youth and family programs at the level of the state and local governments. These governments are usually those of the states of Iowa and Pennsylvania. Lastly, the third phase, or the early sustainability phase, which focuses on sustaining the programs and local partnerships to create a permanent structure for the operations of the team as well as for its activities (Mincemoyer et al.). The PROSPER Partnership Model is successful in that it involves multiple systems of influence from the individual to the family, to the schools, employers, health care providers, service agencies and law enforcement authorities. The only problem that will most likely affect the development and the effectiveness of the PROSPER Partnership Model is the lack of federal funds caused by deficits, which are in turn brought about by economic issues faced by federal and state governments. Therefore, the only threat to the PROSPER partnership model is budget cuts, which may severely affect the three phases of the program. Adolescents Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids (ATLAS) ATLAS is a selective program designed for the recovery of male high school athletes from substance abuse especially the use of anabolic steroids and other drugs. At the same time, it is designed to provide healthy nutrition as well as alternatives to illegal athletic-enhancing drugs. It usually involves coaches and the teammates and friends of the program participant, as well as his parents (Goldberg et al., 2000). The ATLAS program is usually integrated into the practice sessions of the sports team to which the participant, participants or the whole team belongs. It usually consists of two components: a prescribed curriculum for the classroom and weight-room skill training sessions. The curriculum for the classroom consists of 45 minutes of activities usually facilitated by the coaching staff, with a total of 10 sessions. Small student groups are ideal for these classroom curriculum activities. These small student groups are usually handled by peer facilitators or team members trained to be facilitators themselves. The second component, which is the training sessions, are taught by the trainers (Goldberg et al., 2000). The success of the ATLAS program usually depends on the fact that uses a specific social unit to direct the purpose, and this unit is the sports team. As an instrument in directing the goals of the ATLAS program, the sports team helps in promoting the idea that nutrition, sports and training for strength are healthy alternatives to the addictive use of anabolic steroids. Moreover, the success of this particular program is supported by research as well as the idea that ATLAS-trained athletes believe that their own teammates and coaches are more reliable and objective sources of information about drugs, nutrition and anabolic steroids. Since the basis of the program is the development of trust between the participant and his teammates and coach, then the degree of the success of the ATLAS program highly depends on the degree of trust within the team. The role of the government in the management of the ATLAS program lies in providing federal funds for athletic organizations and schools in order to carry out the training of the coaches and the training of the peer facilitators (Goldberg et al., 2000). Focus on Families (FOF) Focus on Families, or FOF, is a program directed towards parents who are undergoing substance abuse. The goal is to reduce the parents’ use of various types of illegal drugs and to teach them good family management. The success of the FOF program can be seen through the early reduction of the risk factors related to parental drug abuse and child drug abuse coupled with a positive program focused on child outcomes (Haggerty et al., 2008). The FOF is actually a combination of a substance abuse prevention program and a parenting skills training program which also includes family and management services. The FOF program is generally directed towards parents, and the FOF curriculum for training the parents usually begins with a five-hour family retreat, which the youth and their parents should attend. This is usually followed by parent and family training sessions that last for approximately 1.5 hours. Master’s level therapists are the ones facilitating the training sessions that last 16 weeks. In skills training sessions, parents are usually taught several family management practices such as limit setting, monitoring, effective communication tips with their children, holding family meetings, and strategies to help children develop the skills to refuse drugs and to help them succeed in school. Children also attend 12 of the sessions with their parents in order to develop a sense of cooperation with their parents. Moreover, home-based case managers also work hand-in-hand with the families in their homes. Basically, the role of the government in making the FOF program possible is the funding of the project and for the training of the therapists who will in turn train the parents and the children (Haggerty et al., 2008). The success of the three aforementioned substance abuse prevention programs – PROSPER, ATLAS and FOF – all depend on the idea that they involve all aspects of the patient’s or participant’s social environment. PROSPER involves the school, the community and the family; ATLAS involves the school, the parents, the coach and the teammates; and FOF involves the whole family and the therapist. It therefore seems that without cooperation and without comprehensive monitoring of all the factors involved in a particular case of substance abuse, there is no room for successful and effective intervention. References Capuzzi, D. & Stauffer, M. D. (2012). Foundations of Addiction Counseling. 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Goldberg, L., MacKinnon, D. P., Elliot, D. L., Moe, E. L., Clarke, G. & Cheong, J. (2000). The Adolescents Training and Learning to Avoid Steroids Program: Preventing Drug Use and Promoting Health Behaviors. JAMA Pediatrics. Retrieved from http://archpedi.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=348976 Haggerty, K. P., Skinner, M., Fleming, C. B., Gainey, R. R. & Catalano, R. F. (2008). Long-Term Effects of Focus on Families on Substance Use Disorders Among Children of Parents in Methadone Treatment. Addiction. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2728465/ Mincemoyer, C., Perkins, D., Ang, P. M. & Greenberg, M. T. (2008). Improving the Reputation of Cooperative Extension as a Source of Prevention Education for Youth and Families: The Effects of the PROSPER Model. Journal of Extension. Retrieved from http://www.joe.org/joe/2008february/a6p.shtml Spoth, R., Redmond, C., Shin, C., Greenberg, M., Clair, S. & Feinberg, M. (2007). Substance-Use Outcomes at 18 Months Past Baseline: The PROSPER Community-University Partnership Trial. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2869212/ Read More