The problem of substance abuse in Australia
Discuss about the Substance Abuse and Professional Counseling for WHO.
Program for consultation with school staff and/or parents, industry/agency personnel to implement primary prevention principles designed to address substance abuse. Description of the goals you would have for your intervention and the procedures you would use, along with a rationale and a description of how you would evaluate your intervention, using action research procedures
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), substance abuse has been described as the exposure to hazardous and harmful psychoactive substances that may include illicit usage of drugs or alcohol. These psychoactive components in the substance can lead to dependence syndrome and a cluster of cognitive, behavioral and physiological phenomena that develops after the continuous use of drugs. This is characterized by a deep desire to consume the drug, finding it difficult to control the drug and continuing the use of these psychoactive substances despite of being aware of the harmful consequences (Foxx, Baker & Gerler, 2017). It can further lead to a state of physical withdrawal and rendering highest priority to drug usage instead of other activities. Although 1 in 3 people are found to have issues with substance abuse like drug and alcohol, more than 90 per cent of the victims of substance abuse do not fit the media stereotype of people with issues of substance abuse. It has been found that one in five household in Australia face alcohol abuse and one in five 16 and 17 year old are exposed to binge drinking in a given week. More than 500, 000 children are living at the risk of exposure to adult drinking that has led to harmful effects for the generation (Corey, 2017). The statistics on cannabis is even more disturbing as it has been found that one in seven secondary school students are found to be using drugs. The problem has escalated to its crux and become a social epidemic considering that the massive level of drinking and drug abuse by the Australian population. It has been normalized and considered as rite of passage to adulthood thereby encouraging the younger generation to become a slave to substance abuse as a means of emulating the adults. A report titled Supporting Families of Young People with Problematic Drug Use released by the federal government ensued that the government’s chief advisory body on the policy of drug has spoke about the disturbing number of children who have turned out binge-drinkers and cannabis consumers in Australia. The study further found that the Australian children have lived with the problem of drug abuse and alcohol abuse that have jeopardized their lives. This includes 230, 000 children who live in the households that have exposure to risk to turn out to be binge drinkers and there are more than 40, 0000 people who live in the house where the adult population are addicted to cannabis (Corey, 2017).
Prevention principles for addressing substance abuse
abuse on a daily basis. There are 12 to 17 year old and one in 10 (16,800) people who are victims of binge drinking. It has been reported that 16 year old and one in five (54, 116) are exposed to cannabis abuse. This is same for the 17 year olds (59, 176). In case of the indigenous population in Australia the alcohol use is 27 per cent and 12 per cent of the indigenous population are victims of alcohol abuse. It was fund that approximately 13 per cent of the younger drinking population has reported that they resort to drinking and driving. It was found that 16 per cent of the population goes to work under the influence of alcohol. This ever-increasing number of the younger population of younger drinkers and drug abuse victims have become a cause of concern for the Australian government as they are exerting enormous pressure of the economy of Australia and at the same time on the financial and personal harmony of the families. Nicola Roxon, the health minister of the country contended that he is committed to developing strategies that would effectively combat the problem (Kearney, 2013).
Some of the suggestions that have emerged in this light are that parents need to keep their children away from alcohol and monitor the child. This can be understood as the rimary intervention to substance abuse. Parents need to delay the onset of alcohol abuse in the younger generation as long as possible with the objective of curtailing the adverse effects posed due to alcohol consumption for the body of the adolescent and the brain development and to minimize the probability of the high-risk posed due to alcohol abuse in the adulthood. In case parents are unwilling or under confident about dealing with the issue of alcohol they need to approach professional counseling service before it takes the shape of a social epidemic. Action design research is concerned with designing a research that would seek intervention in responding to a given problem in a systematic manner with the aim of bringing praxis. The conclusions regarding effective counseling strategies related to the substance abuse victims are limited in the specialty of counseling (Schmidt, 2014). This has led to the traditional approach has led to the traditional approach to drug abuse was not suitable to respond to the epidemic of substance abuse. The traditional intervention to the treatment of substance abuse has incurred short-term benefits instead of reaping in long-term results. These short-term results are stress management, aversion therapy, social skills training and solution-focused brief therapy. It is found that the counselors regardless of the settings are influential as harbingers of change. Successful intervention with the client through the incorporation of the appropriate techniques and requisite skills needs to be invested. Therapeutic techniques are important in addressing the concern of the client and the various stakeholders associated with the client. Counseling has been understood as a process that has turned out to be beneficial for the clients. The aim would be develop rapport with the client in addition to maintaining the professional demeanor. Counseling models can be effective in addition to their counseling outcome. Some of these counseling outcomes are experiential, behavioral, dynamic and cognitive. The counseling practice include the counselor resorting to the common practices. Therefore, the objective would be to develop a counseling plan that would be trustworthy, open, premised on collaborative relationship, where there is the facilitation of the client cognitive learning through reframing, there is the collection of feedback, insightful strategy and assisting the client in transforming the behavior through the change in regulation, testing of reality and the successful experiences (McMahon & Watson, 2015).There needs to be emphasis on the conversations of the life problems by addressing the problems directly to the clients.
The role of consultation with school staff and/or parents, industry/agency personnel
Another therapeutic skill in this context would be providing structure to the counselor-client relationship. There would be various stages incorporated in this counseling plan with the objective of successful intervention and counseling perspective depending on the types of clients and in context to the different client-counselor relationship (McMahon & Watson, 2015). The counselor would be counseling clients with a thrust on the person and not the substance. Therefore, there should be person-centered approach. The counselor will incorporate additional knowledge and skills that would relate to their ability to utilize the standards of assessment. There needs to be a familial and the social environment assessment that would identify the degree and veracity to utilize the support system of the client. There would be identification of the individual needs of the client and thereby determine the quality of counseling and concomitant treatment intervention strategies that are connected to the assessment and diagnostic skills. There would be referral options decided by the needs of the client and collaboratively agreed upon strategies by the counselor and the client (Wittmer & Clark, 2007). There would be short-term in-patient care that is intended to last for three to seven days for the withdrawal from substance abuse or the intensive and the outpatient programs that would last for eight to twelve weeks. In this context, the client would need to maintain the vocational and family way house and provision of the moderately structured and supportive residential treatment that would last for three to six months, in this case living within the setting would become important in success of the treatment plan. Another option would be Synanon in which the clients will have to remain the first one aimed for two years and there would be two kinds of out-patient alcoholism treatment programs. one would be drug free clinics that would provide services that would last for four to six months and the second one is the methadone or the opiate clinics in which the client will be attended by medical referral for two to five years (Foxx, Baker & Gerler, 2017). In this case, the emphasis would e on group treatments that would be the predominant mode of therapy in which the individual and the client would be viewed as an adjunct
Rationale for a comprehensive guidance program and describe the goals and activities you would use to accomplish the goals of peer counseling. Plan for evaluating your program using action research procedures
Peer counseling approach
As has been discussed until now, substance abuse extreme concern on the individuals of the society due to the problematic behaviour incurred due to substance abuse. The peer counseling emerged during the period of the 1970s as a response to the increasing threat posed by the effects of substance abuse (Gysbers & Henderson,2014). The thrust of peer counseling method is to emphasize on the effectiveness of the peer counselor to solve the problems and enforce sustainable and effective coping skills to understand the feelings about the emotion that would lead to the situation being enhanced rather than being discarded. Another feature of the peer group counseling method is that high school students can learn from their own experiences as well as the experiences of their peers. The peer counseling approach firmly believes in the agency and the potential of the students to resolve their conflicts and in the long-term have the ability resolve their problems (Kearney, 2013). These features of the peer group counseling method makes it effective in dealing with the high incidence of substance abuse among the school children and college students in Australia. In the given context, peer counseling would be taught to the students and encourage them to engage in the psychology problem solving. Two mental health practitioners that would adopt nine-week sequences of problem solving would develop the curriculum.
Firstly, it would be taught that in a model class in the presence of the teachers. The curriculum would commence with the identification of the problem followed by the exploration of the alternative solutions and finally through the selection of the solution and implementation of the same. Finally, there would be the evaluation regarding the effectiveness of the resolved issue (Wilson, 2014).In addition, there would be examination of the impact of emotions in each of the stage. The students would be taught group process skills where they would be divided into a group and encouraged to identify the problem. Secondly, the students would have to identify the solution of the problem that is to be followed by the application of the solution to the problem in this nine-week course. The second component of the program would be that students in the class should have a client whom they have counseled at the outset of the fifth week. The program would e evaluated trough distribution of the feedback forms and interaction with the parents of the clients to assess the effectiveness of the program and propose for future modifications to seek the best outcome.
References
Corey, G. (2017). Student manual for theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (10th ed.). Pacific Grove CA: Brooks/Cole.
Corey, G. (2017). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (10th ed.). Pacific Grove CA: Brooks/Cole.
Foxx, S., Baker, S., & Gerler, E. (2017). School Counseling in the 21st Century. NY: Routledge.
Gysbers, N. & Henderson, P. (2014). Developing and managing your school guidance program (5th ed.). Alexandria, VA: ACA.
Kearney, C. A. (2013). Casebook in child behavior disorders (5th ed.). Melbourne.
Wadsworth/Cenage.
McMahon, M., & Patton, W. (2nd ed.). (2015). Ideas for career practitioners: Celebrating excellence in career practice. Brisbane, Australia: Australian Academic Press.
McMahon, M., & Watson, M. (2015). Career Assessment: Qualitative approaches. Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense
McMahon, M. (Ed.). (2017). Career counselling: Constructivist approaches (2nd ed.).
Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Schmidt, J. (2014). Counselling in schools: Essential services and comprehensiveprograms (6th ed). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Wilson, Rachal Zara (2014). Neuroscience for Counsellors. Jessica Kingsley Publishers:London.
Wittmer, J. & Clark, M. (Eds., 2007). Managing your school counselling program: K12
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