Social work interventions for clients with substance abuse issues
There are over 13 million illegal immigrants in the United States. These undocumented or illegal immigrants often have to live in deplorable states with low wages and little to spend on necessities such as food, shelter, and health care. They face discrimination as a result of their illegal status in their country. This paper focuses on how social workers can work with illegal immigrants to improve their situation.
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Social Work: Working With Substance Abuse Issues
Social Work
Individuals in the clinical population of interest
Substance abuse includes use of drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and opioids, and other substances such as alcohol, amphetamines, benzodiazepines, and barbiturates. Often use of these substances leads to criminal ramifications since they are outlawed in many states alongside possible social, physical, and psychological consequences from their use. They also lead to antisocial behaviors and may lead to dependency on the drug by the user.
It is estimated that substance abuse is common in 120 million persons using hard drugs and other substances. The age of these users ranges from the early age of 14 onwards with reports suggesting that close to half of students in the 12th grade have used illegal drugs at some point in their lives. Common drugs among these young users are alcohol and cigarettes of tobacco.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are over half a billion people struggling with problems that result from use of substances, especially alcohol while close to two hundred million people are dependent on these substances. The numbers for each drug show a similar trend. It is estimated that over 50 million people are direct users of heroin and cocaine suggesting the use of these drugs is extremely high.
Use of these drugs and substances among illegal immigrants is also high. It is estimated that there are more than 13 million illegal immigrants in the United States with some reports suggesting they could be as many as 25 million. It is believed that more than half of the illegal immigrants, especially those from Mexico Segovia & Defever, 2010()
, are users of illicit drugs and substance. Use of these drugs and substance among illegal immigrants from Asia, Europe, Canada, Africa, and Asia is also high. The state of California, which houses the most illegal immigrants estimated at 3 million, is also thought to be the state with the most burden from use of illicit drugs and substances.
Majority of the users of these illicit substances do so for many reasons. First is as a scape goat from their problems. Users of illicit substances often feel the need to escape from the reality of problems, lack of jobs, political oppression in their home country, loss of relatives, family, or friends. These illicit substances, which give hallucinations as side effects, help them escape this reality and experience a world without problems though only for a short period. When this effect fades, they feel the need to use more drugs to keep the hallucinations going.
The second reason is as a result of peer pressure. It is estimated that three in every four teenagers who has used drugs or illicit substances before does so to fit in with their peers. They see drug and illicit substance use as 'cool' and as a prerequisite for acceptance into their desired social groups. Therefore, they use these substances for this reason. Other teenagers also use illicit substances as a form of experiment to 'see what it feels like' to use these substances. Others may use it as a form of rebel against their parents while others may see the use of drugs such as alcohol as a sign of being grown up and being able to make their own choices. These are some of the reasons why teenagers use drugs.
Substance abuse amongst homeless people is also a huge issue. It is estimated that four in every ten homeless people are dependent on alcohol with another three being users of other hard drugs. Use of alcohol is more common in the older generations compared to the younger generation, which often has to rely on harder substances to get the desired effect. A survey conducted in 2007 suggests that two out of every three homeless people report substance abuse as the reason they are homeless. They report becoming dependent on these drugs and substances and spending too much that they lost everything that they had. Some reported having high flying careers and losing these to drugs and substance abuse.
People who abuse these substances are discriminated in the society as being ill-mannered, disrespectful, and unable to cope with reality. While these are truths stemming from their stupor from using these substances, they are discriminated for this reason. They also face discrimination from alienation. They become estranged from families and friends and it is also difficult for them to make new friends.
Persons involved with drug use and abuse are also discriminated against several opportunities, especially in the workplace. They are often denied positions by virtue of being drug users and judgments or impressions are made about them through being involved with drug use. Mandatory drug tests in the workplace, schools, or other places such as hospitals also lead to discrimination against these individuals since they are viewed as being unreliable and often prosecuted.
ADDIN EN.CITE
After identifying the personal biases, the counselor can help the client overcome these barriers by assuring them of confidentiality and anonymity throughout the treatment Hays & Erford, 2013.
The social worker should also assure the client that they will not be reported to the police or immigration authorities since this is a huge fear of persons using illegal substances.
How knowledgeable and comfortable are you in working with this population?
To counsel users of illicit substances, one needs to understand the challenges that this population faces, reasons they fall into substance abuse, and other aspects related to substance abuse such as its consequences. There is also the need to understand how a person may need to make difficult choices and sacrifices for the benefit of others. To work with users of illicit substances, the counselor should have this knowledge and understanding. I consider myself to have this knowledge and understanding. The second most important thing is to know and understand the challenges and discrimination that users of illicit substances face. Here, it is important to understand how illegal immigrants access necessities such as food, shelter, clothing, and health care. This is important because it helps to put together a complete picture of how substances abusers live and survive. This is also important for me as a social workers to create an environment or empathy, acceptance, and warmth for the individual to resolve their issues. I need to gain this knowledge and understanding to work with this group.
The legality of working with users of illicit substances without reporting them or information they provide to immigration authorities is an unknown to me. I need to understand the legal requirements of a social worker dealing with this population such as their legally mandated roles and responsibilities when dealing with these clients. The stand of the American Psychological Association as well as shared experiences by other social workers in the course of study and work in regards to working with this group will be extremely beneficial. To meet these needs, I will need to gain experience with working with substance abusers and read as much as possible in the literature regarding multicultural counseling which will be relevant to this kind of social work. The time schedule for this is about 2 -- 3 months, which I feel is sufficient to gain knowledge as a slow pace that is not strenuous to my current workload.
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