Substance Abuse among Native Americans in the U.S - Coursework Example

Substance Abuse among Native Americans in the U.S This paper focuses on the Substance Abuse among NativeAmericans in the U.S and the treatment therapies and programs. As the study documents, there is correlation between symptoms of historical trauma to unresolved grief, psychiatric disorders associated with post-traumatic stress disorders such as hypervigilance, depression & anxiety and close theoretical links with substance abuse. This paper has also outlined the effectiveness of the involvement of the family and the community as the main fundamental components of treatment of Native American substance abusers as well as the major advantage of culturally based treatment therapy. Introduction Substance abuse is one pervasive and significant health crisis among the Native Americans in the United States of America. Although this population is relatively small compared to the other ethnic groups in the United States of America, it is significantly affected by substance abuse. Researchers have made several efforts in studying the dynamics of this population in order to understand them better and thus address their health needs (Lowe et al, 2012). A lot of research has however been shifted to the native American youth and adolescents as a strategy to prevent and manage substance abuse at an early age since treatment and rehabilitation has proven very difficult in the past. It is therefore important to note that monitoring the abuse of substance among the Native Americans is critical for implementation of informed programs for effective prevention and treatment. This would be important since it forms the basis for reducing social, long-term, and short-term and economics costs. Substance abuse among certain populations has often fascinated the US public. Native Americans also referred to as American Indians and Alaska Natives is one population that has experienced severe health effects of drug abuse. This paper examines substance abuse and its impacts on the Native Americans in the United States outlining the crisis, Historical context of the crisis, Prevalence of the crisis, therapeutic interventions used to intervene, and a critical analysis of the pros and cons of the intervention programs. The assessment of impacts of the intervention and treatments for substance abuse would also be important in managing the costs incurred by the Native Americans’ youths and their families in terms of impaired physical, mental and psychosocial wellbeing of the abusers. Historical Context Historical trauma (HT) has been suggested as the leading contributing factor to the higher rates of substance abuse among Native Americans of the United States today. Historical studies of the survivors of the Holocaust shows a correlation between the historical trauma and substance abuse (Lane & Simmons, 2011). Researchers have defined Historical Trauma as “a unique individual experience associated with traumatic event or enduring condition of unresolved grief that occurs across generations” (Hawkins & La, 2012). Even though the levels of exposure to traumatic events has gone down in the recent past of United States, research has shown that Native American communities still experience significant levels of historical trauma through exposure to violence, racism and starvation. Researchers today have demonstrated correlation between symptoms of historical trauma to unresolved grief, psychiatric disorders associated with post-traumatic stress disorders such as hypervigilance, depression & anxiety and close theoretical links with substance abuse (Lowe et al, 2012). Recent studies have also shown that historical trauma is often associated with depression, negative feelings as well as psychological distress among Native American communities. A recent study by Lane & Simmons (2011), on adolescents between the age groups 11-13 years old shows that perceived historical loss had independent but significant effects on the adolescents’ depressive symptoms. This is viewed a the most contributing factor to substance abuse in the history of Native Americans. A recent bivariate analysis also revealed that historical trauma was positively correlated with alcohol abuse especially for men (B = 0.45, P Read More