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Name
People affected by alcohol and substance abuse
Instructor
Date
Discuss the impact that at least two of the factors below have on People affected by alcohol and substance abuse.
Alcohol is a drug that is associated with a level of addiction. This does not give a guarantee that everybody taking alcohol will be addicted. Addiction to alcohol and other drugs is associated with continued and frequent usage of the substance under question. There are several factors which are associated with the abuse of alcohol and other substance. This article discusses the impact age and income in relation to abuse of alcohol and other substance. It also looks at the social, political and economic factors as well as providing a program to evaluate the risks associated with a community and health needs with an aim of providing measures to control the associated risks.
Age
There are many reasons why people end up being involved in alcoholic behaviour and substance abuse. Age is a great factor which is associated with alcohol and substance abuse. Statistics have proved that as people grow older they tend to grow towards substance and alcohol abuse. Taking a good example, children grow up and leave their home to start a smaller home for their own. At this stage of life, friends become fewer and farther apart (Miller-Day, 2012). The difficulties that individuals experience as old age approaches make them to be inclined to alcoholism and drugs.
In many cases a person may be having a problem for a long period of time which continues to get worse with years dragging him/her to drug and alcohol abuse. The fact that growing is associated with increased responsibilities, this may bring challenges which bring about health issues, physical pain, stress, loneliness and the aspect loss of mobility. In the modern age alcohol is abused by a wide range of age in the society from teenagers to aged population (Miller-Day, 2012). The greater part of alcohol and substance abuse effects are felt by the elderly.
This is because the impacts of alcohol and drug abuse injuries are more severe to adults unlike younger population. Statistics have helped in proving that the bigger percentage of adults’ hospital admissions are as a result of drug and alcohol problems. A survey carried in nursing homes has indicated that nearly 50% of the residents have alcohol related problems. Alcohol problems are associated with high numbers of individuals suffering from conditions of heart attack. Another statistics shows that nearly 17 million prescriptions for tranquilizers are prescribed for older adults. This is associated with the fact that benzodiazepines, which a type of tranquilizing drug, are commonly misused and abused prescription medications (Miller-Day., 2012) These statistics can be used to prove that alcohol and substance abuse is at a high rate in the elderly adults’ stage.
Gender
Gender can be used to refer to the variety of roles, behaviour and activities which the society attributes to be appropriate for men and women. In the case of alcohol and substance abuse, the problem is faced by both genders without discrimination. This does not consider the age or marital status. Nevertheless, statistics have proved that men have outnumbered women in treatments associated with substance abuse. Only 30 % of the population treated of alcoholism are women. Women are referred to treatment in other problems with family issues or mental health issues. The higher number of alcohol and substance abuse in men is associated with lesser responsibility in the family (Schinke, Tepavac, Cole, 2014). Women are side-lined by family chores such as child-care therefore the greater part of women population does not alcoholic or being involved in substance abuse unlike the male counterpart.
New model program
There are several factors which are associated to alcohol and substance abuse. This are linked with the social, political, and economic factors which make communities vulnerable. This means that there should be a set infrastructure which should be critical to the fight against alcohol and substance abuse. This is because substance abuse is detrimental to the general progress of a community. Developing a community model program to help reducing the population being involved in alcohol and substance abuse. The program developed in this articles seeks to control the rate of alcohol and substance abuse at the elderly adult stage. This is critical in reducing the health issues such as chronic diseases like heart diseases, diabetes and cancer (Schinke, Tepavac, Cole, 2014). Youth at the earlier stages is a key target group because it the point where many people start the habit of alcohol and substance abuse.
In the development of the community program there are primary codes which should be considered. The information about the community, culture, concerns as well as the drug being abused. The methods which can be used in the process of prevention, the strengths, recovery and treatment process and why the treatme4nt is preferred to mitigate the harm of the substance under question.
There are challenges which exist in execution of a community program. This can be associated with family issues, education, clinic classes, employment issues among others (Shillington AM, et.al., 2015). A community should be properly analysed in the process of developing an insightful perspective and cohesive knowledge in addressing the breath of the research question.
In my community program, a recovery and treatment centre should be created as a key measure to control the rate of alcoholism. The elderly adults have proved to seek treatments from distance heath centres. Proper education should be given on the young adults to ensure that they are not involved in substance abuse. This was arrived at following a community research and data analysis which proved that greater part of the elder community was alcoholic. The services which this program will bring on board are treatment and recovery services and educative platforms which will be critical in advising members on how to sort out their problems without necessarily being involved in substance abuse.
References
Shillington AM, Lehman S, Clapp J, Hovell MF, Sipan C, Blumberg EJ. (2015) Parental monitoring: Can it continue to be protective among high-risk adolescents? Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse.
Schinke SP, Tepavac L, Cole KC. (2014) Preventing substance use among Native American youth: Three-year results. Addictive Behaviors.
Miller-Day MA. (2012) Parent-adolescent communication about alcohol, tobacco and other drug use. Journal of Adolescent Research.
