Alcoholism and IV drug use in Rural NJ

Alcoholism and IV drug use in Rural NJ
There has been a dramatic spike in alcoholism and IV drug addiction over the past couple of months. This has been the leading cause of death in the rural community of Wantage, NJ. The health need identified aligns with the Healthy People 2020 objectives in that it is aimed at reducing the number of addicts especially adolescents. The community has seen an influx of drug addiction and this has become a problem as not many people understand the effects of drugs. Preventing and reducing the number of drug addicts within the community will lead to better outcomes and increase the mortality rate. The objectives of reducing the number of adolescents who partake of drugs and alcohol will ensure that as they get older, they will most likely keep off drugs. Teaching adolescents the negative effects of drugs will also lead to them avoiding drugs as they are well aware of how dangerous they can be to a person's mental state. Early treatment is also encouraged, which will assist in offering solutions at an early age instead of when the problem has become too serious.
Alcohol and heroine have been identified as the drugs that are most abused within the community. With a population of about 11,000 residents, it is surprising that about 43 percent have been reported to have some sought of addiction (Blevins et al., 2018). This is based on the number of people who have sought treatment within the county's treatment centers. One wonders how many others have not sought treatment and they are out there. With the continued abuse of alcohol and drugs, the community is slowly deteriorating in the number of people who are able to hold jobs and public facilities are being overrun. At the moment the community needs to invest more in preventive strategies. This will ensure that people receive information and training on the adverse effects of drugs ensuring that they do not go down that rabbit hole. Increasing rehabilitation services is also vital for the community. The most affected members of the community are aged between 25 and 60 years. The men are the most affected of this age group (Blevins et al., 2018), however, women are not that far off.
With proper interventions in place, the community will benefit in reducing the number of new addicts and controlling those currently addicted. Interventions are aimed at offering counseling services and rehabilitation of those who are afflicted by the drugs. Reducing the number of addicts will also reduce the rates of crime and other evil habits that mostly follow addicts. Businesses will also benefit in that they will now have enough people to work within the businesses and the community will flourish. According to Miloyan, Bulley, Brilot, and Suddendorf (2017) the health and mortality rate of the community will increase and there will be healthier and happy residents. In case the problem is not solved there is a probability that more and more people will continue to be addicted and the younger generation will most likely also follow in the footsteps of the older generation. Health will deteriorate and the number of children born will also reduce (Miloyan et al., 2017). This could wipe out a whole town. Considering that at the last national census of 2010 the population of Wantage was 11,358 and currently it stands at 11,128. This clearly demonstrates that the population has declined in the past 7 years instead of increasing. However, there might be other contributory factors apart from drug addiction and alcohol.
The Sussex County has established a substance abuse and alcohol office that is charged with offering preventive services and treatment services. The office was established in 2010. The office receives funding and it is charged with ensuring that each community within the county receives the support and funding needed to fight the addiction to drugs and alcohol. There has been a reported decline in the number of drug use amongst the younger generation and this is based on efforts by the county. School students have received numerous training and support services to ensure that they do not begin using drugs or alcohol. With such endeavors, it becomes easy to manage the problem and reduce the number of new and young addicts. However, the efforts have not been as successful with the older generation who are termed to be individuals aged over 25 years. There are plans in the 2016-2019 county comprehensive plan to target the older generation with treatment and preventive services. This way the community will receive the needed resources and assistance from the county to fight the problem. It is the expectation of the community that much can be done to ensure that there is a reduction in the number of addicts. Members of the community have been pushing for the increase in rehabilitation centers to ensure that addicts receive the needed assistance to fight the problem (Blevins et al., 2018). At the moment people are getting hooked at a faster rate than those who are undergoing rehabilitation, which is worrying to the community members. However, with the interventions being implemented by the county thing do look up and community members are looking forward to an awesome outcome of when they can have a drug free community.
Goal to address the problem
The goal identified is "Develop strategies to prevent drug use and increase rehabilitation". This goal will ensure that there are strategies in place to fight the problem from the start and to also offer support to people who have been suffering from the problem. Prevention is always the best cure and if the community can be given support and guidance on how to fight off the problem then we can be assured that the problem will be eliminated for sure. The best behavioral objectives that can assist in achieving this objective are 1) Educate parents, teachers, and other caregivers to assist youth to reject illegal drugs, 2) Pursue public communications and advertising programs for dealing with the dangers of illegal drugs and alcohol and, 3) Establish rehabilitation centers and counselors within the community.
Behavioral Objective
Primary Intervention
Secondary Intervention
Tertiary Intervention
Educate parents, teachers, and other care givers to assist youth reject illegal drugs.
Informing parents and other caregivers on the dangers associated with drugs and alcohol. Teaching them on the methods that they can use to educate their children and the community on the dangers of drugs and alcohol (Grant et al., 2017).
Providing educational programs for the youth that are led by the community and other caregivers. Counselling and educating people on the dangers of alcohol and drugs.
Providing the parents, teachers, counsellors, and other caregivers with the necessary materials to be able to assist the people who are already suffering from this condition.
Pursue public communications and advertising programs for dealing with the dangers of illegal drugs and alcohol
Creating compelling advertisements that paint the grim picture of what drugs and alcohol does to a person. Offering material to the youth on how they can avoid being hooked to drugs and alcohol.
Targeting the promotional materials to the areas that the most at high risk population is located. This could be schools, hospitals, or play grounds.
Having information and contacts that people can reach out to in case they want assistance. Identifying people who would be charged with offering support at the various social amenity locations.
Establish rehabilitation centers and counsellors within the community
Hire professional counselors who are trained on how to handle and deal with drug and alcohol addicts. Develop rehabilitation centers to ensure that there are enough facilities to support the objective.
Encourage drug and alcohol addicts to visit the centers for counselling services. Have the professionals visit certain areas within the community to interact with the addicts.
Offer detoxification and withdrawal medication to the addicts (Grant et al., 2017).
The community resources needed to initiate this program include hiring trained alcohol and drug educators, printing educational materials, identifying recreational centers that can be used for counseling services, and identifying advertising companies. Parents, community elders, teachers, and other caregivers can be offered training materials that they can use to educate the youth and children on the dangers of drugs and alcohol. We estimate that the costs for setting up this program will only include the cost of printing materials, hiring counselors, leasing out halls, billboards, and television advertisements. The total cost would come to about $20,000.
Evaluation of the program will be measured by a reduction in the number of drug and alcohol addicts within a specified period. Reduced number of adolescents who take up drugs and alcohol (Moss, Goldstein, Chen, & Yi, 2015). With the intention of the program been to reduce the dependency of alcohol and drugs and to also discourage the youth from starting to use them then it would be worthy to also measure how effective the program has been by interacting with the youth. This will be aimed at determining how much knowledge they have regarding the effects of drugs and alcohol. Surveys could also be conducted to determine the impact of rehabilitation centers. The relapse rate should also be measured in order to establish if the interventions are working.
References
Blevins, C. E., Abrantes, A. M., Anderson, B. J., Caviness, C. M., Herman, D. S., & Stein, M. D. (2018). A longitudinal evaluation of the role of alcohol self?concept in alcohol use, motives, negative affect, and alcohol?related problems among emerging adults. The American journal on addictions, 27(6), 501-508.
Grant, B. F., Chou, S. P., Saha, T. D., Pickering, R. P., Kerridge, B. T., Ruan, W. J., . . . Fan, A. (2017). Prevalence of 12-month alcohol use, high-risk drinking, and DSM-IV alcohol use disorder in the United States, 2001-2002 to 2012-2013: results from the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions. JAMA psychiatry, 74(9), 911-923.
Miloyan, B., Bulley, A., Brilot, B., & Suddendorf, T. (2017). The association of Social Anxiety Disorder, Alcohol Use Disorder and reproduction: Results from four nationally representative samples of adults in the USA. PLoS ONE, 12(11), e0188436.
Moss, H. B., Goldstein, R. B., Chen, C. M., & Yi, H.-Y. (2015). Patterns of use of other drugs among those with alcohol dependence: Associations with drinking behavior and psychopathology. Addictive Behaviors, 50, 192-198.