Social Support, People who Give you Positive during Crisis - Essay Example

SOCIAL SUPPORT Introduction Any form of comfort; physical or emotional, given to a person by others can be a social support. Man is asocial animal and it is necessary for him to get the physical and emotional support from the society in which he interacts. This support may be from family, friends or the society. Social support can be of different types (see appendix); instrumental (help in the form of money, time, in-kind assistance, and other explicit interventions on the person’s behalf), informational (advice, suggestions, or directives that assist the person to respond to personal or situational demands), emotional (empathy, concern, caring, love, and trust) and appraisal (transmission of information in the form of affirmation, feedback and social comparison) (Social support) Advice through telephone is a common form of social support. Many people in our society need emotional support and that can be achieved through advice through telephone. These people are often reluctant in approaching the social support centres because of shame. Missing people or runaway people are another social problem for which social support is essential. For example, teens often run away from their family because of some family problems and will be reluctant to come back their home because of their concerns about how the family and society will respond to their return. This paper explains social support in terms of telephone counselling and missing people. Literature review: missing people Adolescence is a period in which the growth hormones are more active. It is difficult for teens to take wise decisions during this period. The segregation between good and evil is a difficult thing for them during this period. The advice of the parents will be considered as an offense to personal integrity by many teens during this period. Conflicts often result in teens run away from home without asking the permission of their parents. Such teens often fell in big traps and antisocial elements will use such teens for sexual abuse and theft like antisocial behaviours. Going missing often results in homelessness and those who are homeless represent a marginal population. Youth aged 12-18 and women go missing at higher rates and face different dangers if they do go missing compared to adults and men (All Academic). The current generation are more vulnerable to the stresses compared to the older generation. Changing life styles and inability to cope up with pressure made the current teen generation vulnerable to the psychological problems. Teens in older generation on the other hand had limited commitments and they were able to manage it without causing problems to anybody else. But the current teens are not like that. They often run away from their home whenever they have some problems related to their family or society. For example, it is common incident in many countries nowadays that even the parents’ abuse their children sexually. Such helpless children may run away from their home in order to escape from the torture they suffered from the family. These people often take shelter in rescue homes with a damaged mental equilibrium. Such people need a wholehearted effort from the counsellor in order to regain their mental equilibrium. The article Kids health (2010) has cited following reasons for teens run away; abuse (violence in the family), parents separating or divorcing or the arrival of a new stepparent, death in the family, birth of a new baby in the family, family financial worries, kids or parents drinking alcohol or taking drugs, problems at school, peer pressure, failing or dropping out of school etc (Kids health). Teens are extremely vulnerable to any changes happening in their family or society. It is difficult for them to handle pressure and agitations. In such situations they will try to run away from realities. Adolescents, both males and females who run away from home are at greater risk for sexual victimization by strangers. Homeless youths may be forced to seek the assistance of strangers to get shelter and to find their livelihood. These strangers on the other hand may exploit these homeless youths fro their personal gains. It is not easy for the run away youths to escape from the hands of these antisocial elements once they brought under their control. Deviant behaviors, high rates of drug use, survival sex are some of the antisocial behavior run away teens may be forced to engage in (Research and Advocacy Digest, p.5) Most of the teens take the running away decisions without thinking about the consequences. They run away from something rather to something (Hass). Momentary lapse of control over emotions may result in most of the running away. Once they run away from their home, most of them may not return automatically to their home because of shame. They may think that the society and family may treat them differently if they return home. Such teens need counseling sessions in order to make them aware of the consequences of their action and to persuade them to return their homes. Telephone counseling is a better way in advising such run away teens. Counselling can provide emotional support, information and guidance for children and adolescents who have run away from home (Run Away Counselling). Most of the run away teens are reluctant in publicly disclosing the reason which drove them away from home. Such teens can rely on telephone counselling to get proper guidance without disclosing their identity. Teens often feel that disclosing of identity may cause problems to them either from the family or from the law enforcement agencies. Protecting of run away teens without seeking permission from the authorities is a crime in many countries. Literature review: Advice through telephone Families or individuals who are not interested in disclosing their identity can seek the social support through telephone. Telephone counselling can open doors for negotiation and settlement of family problems through consultation and counselling. Most of the problematic individuals/families like to settle their issue by remaining behind the curtains. They will never come in front of the curtain because of their concerns about privacy and integrity. Such people can utilize telephone advices/counselling to settle their issues with family or society. Telephone counselling can be utilized in many other areas also. Solomon et al (1996), after a thorough research have found that social support through telephone calls using ex-smokers is effective in making positive changes in women smoking (Solomon et al, p.379). Women smokers are large in many countries. Female smoking may cause more damages to the pregnant women and the fetus. Generally smokers are not much influenced by the counselling or advices. But, advices of ex-smokers can yield more positive results among women smokers. Ex-smokers are persons who got rid of their smoking habits and their advices will be valued more by the women smokers. 17 men diagnosed with prostate cancer of age in the range of 51-78 tested with telephone social support over a 12-month period by Scura KW, Budin W, Garfing E (Department of Nursing, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ, USA) in 2004. They found that social support and education through telephone were effective in increasing adaptation to prostate cancer (Scura et al). Cancer is a serious disease and people may develop psychological problems like anxiety, depression etc once thy came to know about their diseases. Mental strength is essential for treating cancer like chronic diseases. In order to get positive response from body mental strength of the patients are important. Counselling through telephone by experienced counsellors may strengthen the mental strengths of the patients and the medicines might be more effective. Telephone advices are part of palliative care adopted by many hospitals and healthcare institutions. Many teens are confused about sexual and romantic life. They don’t have much knowledge about these two segments of human life and often fell in dangers. Teen community have lot of doubts about such lives and most of them are reluctant in seeking advices from the family with respect to these matters. They normally rely on peers to get advice, but these peers also may not have many ideas. In such cases, they can seek the help from experts through telephone. The major advantage of seeking help through telephone is that they can keep their privacy and also their personal information intact. Telephone counselling can also help people get advice to marriage problems, relationships, depression, anxiety etc. Conclusions Social support is necessary especially for run away teens to get rid of their problems related to family or society. Most of the running away occurs because of momentary loss of control of emotions. Such teens may return their homes if proper counselling is given to them. Telephone counselling is most suitable for run away teens because such teens will never come in front of the public to protect their privacy. It is difficult for teens to manage their stresses by themselves. Negative thoughts and anxieties will dominate the wisdom and positive thinking among teens who faces family or social problems; however proper support from the society may help such persons to overcome their mental and physical problems. Social support can be extended in many forms like informational, instrumental, emotional and appraisal. Telephone advices are a form of informational social support, useful for runaway teens. Works Cited 1. All Academic. “Social Exclusion and Marginality among Missing Persons”. 07 March 2010. 2. Colonel Mohammed Ahmed Al- Hossani. 2004. “Social Responsibility”. Social Support Centre. 3. Hass, Werner. 2006. “Why Do So Many Teenagers Run Away From Home?”. 07 March 2010. 4. “Kids Health”. 2010. 07 March 2010. 5. Research and Advocacy Digest. 2004. “Homeless, Runaway & Throwaway Youth: Sexual Victimization and the Consequences”. 07 March 2010. 6. “Run Away Counselling”. 07 March 2010. 7. Scura KW, Budin W, & Garfing E. 2004. “Telephone Social Support and Education for Adaptation to Prostate Cancer: A Pilot Study”. 07 March 2010. 8. Solomon, Laura J, Secker-Walker Roger H, Flynn Brian S, Christ Sally, Dana Greg S, and Dorwaldt Anne L. 1996. “Proactive Peer Support by Telephone to Help Women Quit Smoking”. 07 March 2010. Oxford University Press. 9. “Social Support”. 2009. 07 March 2010. Appendix Cases handled by the Abu Dhabi Social Support Centre between 25/02/2004 and 31/1 Percentage Number Type of Case Number 25.7 395 Domestic Disputes 1 19.5 300 Conjugal Differences 2 14.6 225 Advice through the telephone 3 8.3 128 Missing Persons 4 7.2 111 Domestic Violence 5 5.8 89 Teenage Problems 6 4.4 68 Financial Problems 7 2.8 44 Suicide Attempts 8 2.2 34 Severe Accident Victims 9 3.1 48 Violation of Rules of Conduct 10 0.9 14 Cases Received from Schools 11 1.0 16 Addiction Problems 12 0.8 12 Visiting the Custodial Parent 13 0.7 11 Psychological Problems 14 0.6 9 Beggary 15 0.4 7 Neighbor Disputes 16 0.7 11 Personal Problems 17 100 1535 Total (Colonel : Mohammed) Read More