Intervention: Drug Abuse Among Adolescents

Intervention: Drug Abuse Among Adolescents This paper states the definition and main risk factors of drug abuse at first. Then, it reviews the three models for drug abuse prevention, including information model, affective model and social influence model. It also mentioned chemical treatments and psychological treatments of drug abuse. There are some comments on the psychological treatments. The author brings up some prevention and intervention plans of adolescents drug abuse in the last part. Keywords: drug abuse, adolescents, prevention and intervention Introduction What is drug abuse? There are many definitions of it. Usually, common people think that taking drugs can satisfy persons desire of happiness. Just as Miller (1995) states Drug abuse implies willful, improper use due to an underlying disorder or a quest for hedonistic or immoral pleasure  ¼Ã‹â€ p. 10 ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °. Actually, it includes many aspects not only social values but also scientific view and not only physical reasons but also psychological elements. So the definition of drug abuse typically refers to 4 dimensions, including the nonmedical use of a substance, altering the mental state, a manner that is detrimental to the individual or the community and illegality (Abadinsky, 2001). Papalia, Olds and Feldman (2009) define substance dependence as physical addiction or psychological addition or both to a harmful substance. If an adolescent has drug abuse, the abuse can lead to substance dependence, or addiction, which may be physiological, psychological, or both and is likely to continue into adulthood (Papalia et al., 2009, p. 366). Addictive drugs have particularly high risk for adolescents as they stimulate parts of the developing brains of adolescents (Chambers, Taylor Potenza, 2003). As economic developing, the drug-taking situation of adolescents is not getting better. According to the World Drug Report 2010 (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC], 2010), drug use has stabilized in the developed world, however, there are signs of an increase in drug use in developing countries and growing abuse of amphetamine-type stimulants and prescription drugs around the world. From 2004 to 2009, the number of drug-taking people who was under 21 years old was increased by more than 50% in Hong Kong (Zhu, 2010). What are the risk factors for drug abuse of adolescents? There are 4 kinds of common risk factors ¼Ã…’including Psychosocial Factors  ¼Ã‹â€ Low Self-esteem, Depression and Suicide ¼Ã¢â‚¬ °, Family Factors (Low Familism, Family Substance Abuse Problems and Parent Smoking), Peer Factors (Perceived Peer Approval and Perceived Peer Use) and Deviance Factors (Disposition to Deviance and Delinquent Behavior) (Vega Gil, 1998). It cannot easily say which fa ctor is the most important one. It depends on the situations those different adolescent experiences. Three Models for Drug Abuse Prevention Drug abuse prevention aimed at reducing the supply or the demand for drugs of abuse (Abadinsky, 2001). There are three models (Ellickson, 1995) that focused on schools and school-based antidrug programs, including information model, affective model and social influence model. Information Model Adolescents can probably avoid drugs, if they comprehend their potential hazards, so this model mainly aimed at giving information. The information model posits a causal sequence leading from knowledge (about drugs) to attitude change (negative) to behavior change (nonuse) (Ellickson, 1995, p. 100). Sometimes the shock or scare is needed in this model, such as hard hitting antidrug videos, talks by ex-junkies, or TV and billboard campaigns that show the scared situation of drug use (Cohen, 1996). This model primarily focuses on the educational approach. It was supposed that students can make rational decisions to keep away from drugs because of increasing knowledge (Abadinsky, 2001). Through information model, adolescents can have a correct and renewed awareness of drug abuse. Affective Model This model pays more attention on individuals themselves and their personality. The model assumes that adolescents who turn to drugs do so because of problems within themselves-low self-esteem or inadequate personal skills in communication and decision making (Ellickson, 1995, p. 101). This model has an attempt at improving a students self-image, ability to interact within a group and problem-solving ability, and concentrates on feelings, values, and self-awareness, and sometimes on personal values and choices (Abadinsky, 2001). These assumptions are generally implemented through communication training, peer counseling, role playing and assertiveness training (Abadinsky, 2001, p. 232). Using affective model, adolescents can strengthen their confidence, improve competency of dealing with incidents and have correct value judgment. Social Influence Model This model more focuses on decision-making. The social influence model is centered on external influences that push students toward drug use, especially peer pressure, as well as internal influences, such as the desire to be accepted by the crowd' (Abadinsky, 2001, p. 229). There are two targets that need to achieve via social influence model. Firstly this model aims to let adolescent to have the awareness of the peer pressures that they are experiencing and secondly to improve their resistance skills for saying no under stress (Abadinsky, 2001). Treatments for Drug Abuse There are two main aspects of drug abuse treatments, including chemical treatments and psychological treatments. According to the classification of Abadinsky (2001), chemical treatments contain opioid antagonists, chemicals for detoxification, opioid agonists, chemical responses to cocaine abuse and CRF antagonists. Abadinsky (2001) also mentions that psychological treatments include a psychoanalytic approach, behavior modification and group treatment. Due to the needs of study and the limit of professional knowledge ¼Ã…’this paper mainly focuses on the psychological aspects. Firstly ¼Ã…’let us look at the psychoanalytic approach. This approach is very professional and high cost. It is very complicated and difficult to control for social workers. It does not have universality and potential replication. This approach usually applies in some special and serious cases. Then we move on to the behavior modification. There are 4 primary kinds of behavior modification, such as aversion treatment, social learning theory approach, cognitive learning theory approach and contingency management and contingency contracting (Abadinsky, 2001). Although the success rate of aversion treatment is high, it is a kind of compulsive and inhuman therapeutic method, especially for adolescents, no matter in physical or mental sides. This treatment addresses the symptoms, not the cause. Abusers will take drugs again when the aversion conditioned ref lex starts to weaken. Contingency management and contingency contracting is outside the scope of this papers inquiry. Social learning theory approach and cognitive learning theory approach are referred below. Group treatment is very useful and widespread. It is often used by social workers. Prevention and intervention plan of adolescents drug abuse There are three dimensions of prevention and intervention plan in this paper. They are macro level, mezzo level and micro level. Macro level This level is more about prevention plan. According to the Information Model (Ellickson, 1995), it needs at least tripartite efforts, including school, community and school. School. Schools should enhance the education of drug abuse and the drug abuses hazards, not only verbal and written forms, but also some other lively forms, such as movies and activities. I think the movie Crimson Jade is very shocked one. Maybe schools can find more movies of this kind to show to adolescents. If they know the fearful consequences of drug abuse, they will want to take drugs less. Community. Actually communities perform a very similar role with schools for the prevention of adolescents. But another thing that communities should pay special attention to is about adolescents family situation, especially for the adolescents whose parents have substance abuse problems. Media. Mass media should play a positive and active role in prevention of adolescents drug abuse. Some programmes that focus on drug abuse should be shown regularly. And ground-breaking visual public service advertising of drug abuse should show on TV, newspaper, Internet, even billboard everywhere. Social influence model (Ellickson, 1995) can be also used in macro level. Schools can make many lectures to let students know that they are all under peer pressures and organize some activities to teach students to develop resistance skills for drug abuse. Mezzo level Mezzo level contains prevention plan and intervention plan. It is more about group work. Group approach is that stimulation toward improvement arises from net work of interpersonal influences in which all members participate (Northern, 1969, p. 52). Group work is one of the most common work methods for social workers. Prevention plan of mezzo level. The prevention plan concentrates on affective model. Referring to affective model (Ellickson, 1995), adolescents are divided into groups to do some counseling and training about affective skills (communication, decision making, self-assertion) believed related to drug use (Abadinsky, 2001). The counseling and training need the participation of social workers. In this kind of group, social workers should pay special attention to those adolescents who do not want to talk. Intervention plan of macro level. This intervention plan focuses on group treatment. Due to social workers may not have drug-taking experience, group treatment can make adolescent clients feel more willing to communicate and peer interaction is more powerful (Abadinsky, 2001). In addition, some problematic interpersonal acts will appear in a group (Flores, 1988). Using group treatment, adolescents of drug abuse can share and identify with others who are going through similar problems; understand their own attitudes about addiction and defenses in others; and learn to communicate needs and feelings more directly (Flores, 1988, p. 7). Adolescents really need the support from others. Social workers should pay special attention to extreme clients who are not appropriate with group treatment and social workers should ensure a suitable scale of different groups. Micro level Micro level more concerns on adolescent abusers themselves and their surroundings. There are two useful intervention approaches with this level one is social learning theory approach and the other one is cognitive learning theory approach. Social learning theory approach. Abadinsky (2001) identifies social learning theory as a variant of behaviorism focuses on cognitive meditational processes and people are active participants in their operant conditioning processes-they determine what is and what is not reinforcing (p. 205). Actually there are many reasons behind the adolescents who have drug abuse. Maybe there are some problems with their families, their school performance, their interpersonal communication and bodies suffering. Social workers must pay more attention to the reasons behind the drug abuse of adolescents and give more patience. So in this intervention, social workers should follow three steps. The first step is to understand why patients may be more likely to use in a given situation and to understand the role that drugs play in their lives (Abadinsky, 2001, p. 205). The second step is to help patients develop meaningful alternative reinforcers to drug abuse, that is, other activities and involvements ( relationships, work and hobbies) (Abadinsky, 2001, p. 205). The third step is to make a detailed examination of the consequences for adolescent clients to test whether their drug abuse reduces (Abadinsky, 2001). Social workers should try their best to find the root causes of adolescents drug abuse and cope with them. This approach focuses on the surroundings of adolescent abusers. Cognitive learning theory approach. This approach emphasizes the awareness of positive and negative consequences of drug abuse for adolescents themselves and the arrangements before taking drugs (Abadinsky, 2001). Social workers can ask adolescent abusers to write a dairy of their drug abuse that includes the situations when they use drugs and the consequences after they use drugs. Social workers ought to inspire clients to review their worst experience with drug abuse and think more about the bad impact of taking drugs. This kind of scare tactic can delay the period before taking drugs. Then social workers also need to teach adolescent abusers a set of relax skills to improve their tension. This approach focuses on adolescent abusers themselves and relies on their own awareness to reduce drug abuse. Drug abuse of adolescents is really a vicious spiral and a long-term repeated process. It needs not only the social workers and adolescent abusers efforts, but also their families, friends, other relevant persons and the whole societys efforts.

Leadership transformation

The authors determined that team values are an influencing factor, which has an effect on the team member's response o the transformational leader, and in turn to the team's performance. Research question(s) (Article 1) What questions(s) does the author present? Hypothesis 1. â€Å"Mediated moderation exists when the Interaction between two variables (diversity and transformational leadership) affects a mediator, which then affects a dependent variable† (Morgan-Lopez & MacKinnon, 2006). Hypothesis 2.Task-relevant information has an effect on the relationship between leader and follower performance with regards to the team's educational diversity, age, and nationality. Hypotnesls 3. How tne team views Olverslty 0T Tellow team memoers ana leader as a â€Å"collective† team in regards to performing as a team. Research Question(s) (Article 2) How does the subordinate's performance have anything to do with the leader's values and behaviors? Do transformational leaders enhanc e team performance?The â€Å"transformational leader inspires others to go beyond self-interest, impressions, and limitations in order to motivate followers to become more effective in reaching common goals† (Bass, Avolio, Jung, ; Berson, 2003). The authors focus on team alues, and the effect that those values have on the performance of the team by comparing and contrasting results from results of study done on team members in the United States and Hong Kong. Literature Review —How is this organized? What are the main themes found in the review? Who are the main authors used?

Community Development Practical Approach

GROUP PRESENTATION ESSAY As part of ‘Community Development in Practice, we went on a field trip to two community organisations, Tallaght Community Arts and St. Kevin’s Family Resource Centre. The purpose of which was to look at how each project practices the principles of community development as described by the Ad Hoc Committee (2008). We had to work as a group of 3 students which included Samantha Hogan, Anthony Kelly and Elaine Vince-O’Hara, to put together a group presentation on the project of our choice.We chose St. Kevin’s Family Recourse Centre as it is a grassroots community development organisation which we believe every community needs. St. Kevin’s Family Resource Centre St. Kevin’s Family Resource Centre is a community organisation and is based in a local primary school in Kilnamanagh, Tallaght, and whose remit covers the areas of Kilnamanagh, Tymon North and Kingswood. Established in 1994, they were one of only three ‘pilot ’ Family Resource Centres (FRC) funded through the Family Support Agency.The centre is managed by a voluntary board of management of which 70% are people from the local community and run by Grainne Begley, the Co-ordinator, Cynthia Moore, the Administrator and a large group of 25 volunteers for additional support. St. Kevin’s have a number of training rooms, counselling/ holistic therapy rooms, a youth cafe and a community childcare centre. They have an open door policy, where community members are at all times welcome to drop in and see what's happening in their community.They have five key areas of work; Community Education, Supporting Community and Voluntary Groups, Counselling ;amp; Holistic therapy, Childcare and Youth Work. St. Kevin’s Mission Statement: ‘St. Kevin’s Family Resource Centre is a community organisation whose mission is to bring about change through the process of empowerment and support at family, individual and community level. ’ St Kevin’s describe themselves as: ‘a thriving and integral part of the community development structures in the area†¦. social inclusion organisation†¦ concerned about the people in the community who†¦. are not participating in society to their fullest potential’ (St. Kevin’s FRC Work Plan 2010-2012). They work out of the values and principles of community development as described by the Ad Hoc Committee (2008) as they strive towards social justice, equality and anti-discrimination through participation, empowerment and collective action to support individuals, families and their wider communities and this is evident throughout their work.They practice the principle of participation by aiming to meet the needs of the local community, enabling them to gain the skills necessary for full participation: They do this through a community consultation process for their work plans and the provision of; community education programmes, a cou nselling service to help overcome many issues including oppression, holistic therapies to promote individual well being and community childcare which provides people with the opportunity to participate and become empowered.St. Kevin’s practice the principles of empowerment as they: acknowledge value and build on people’s lives and existing experiences which is the basis of the community education which they provide. They work with people to; build an understanding of their reality and identify ways to overcome them and build confidence and self-esteem through the provision of their counselling service and holistic therapies offered. St.Kevin’s practice the principles of collective action as they collaborate and build alliances with other groups, organisations and agencies in order to advance key community objectives, they do this through their support of diverse user groups and networking with various agencies including; South Dublin Community Platform (SDCP), A ctive Citizenship Together (ACT), South Dublin County Council (SDCC), the County Development Board (CDB) This ‘process empowers the community to develop new skills and be more pro-active in their own learning’. Impacts include empowerment of groups, sustaining their development and development of partnership relationships between the Centre and new groups’. ‘There is a large increase in community activity’. Motherway, B (2006) St. Kevin’s practice the principles of social justice by building strategic alliances and encouraging active participation to create awareness of the work of the family resource centre, in order to bring about social change. They work with the community in developing appropriate responses to identified needs through consultation with the community and they provide pportunities to access community education for the purpose of achieving personal and community development. They build the capacity of the management committee and continue to build a strong community development organisation to ensure that resources are utilised to their maximum effect ‘provide a safe, inclusive, happy childcare facility where children can grow and develop in confidence, thus supporting the family’ (St. Kevin’s Family Resource Centre Work Plan 2010-2012) St.Kevin’s practice Equality ;amp; Anti Discrimination in acknowledging the diverse nature of their local community, where 20% are lone parents, 25% having no formal education, 10% have a disability, 8% are from an ethnic minority family and there is a high rate of unemployment. They promote difference and diversity, evidenced by their active role in developing a strategy to promote the integration of travellers and ethnic minorities, which was put forward to the County Development Board for consideration.They also promote understanding and analysis of equality issues, and strategies to address them within communities through their community ed ucation programmes. Challenges Some of the current challenges faced by St. Kevin’s include: adapting to the impact of the recession including: trying to meet the needs of unemployed people accessing the service who are looking to up skill and or retrain, having to reduce the number of community education programmes due to cuts and people not engaging due to the social and economic difficulties which are hindering their ability to participate.Successes As well as challenges they have had many successes, primarily the development and progression of a hugely successful and affordable community childcare centre, which started over twenty years ago as a two parent, parent and toddler group and grew through true grassroots community development ‘by the people, for the people’. To this day a weekly parent and toddler group are still going strong with up to 40 families taking part. Cynthia Moore, another success first became involved in St. Kevin’s FRC as a partic ipant.She went on to complete a community employment scheme in the centre after which she secured part-time paid employment as the administrator. She continued to participate on many community education courses and through empowerment she eventually gained the confidence to undertake a Leadership ;amp; Community Development degree course which she successfully completed in 2011. Cynthia continues in her role of Administrator and she also volunteers as a ‘Rainbows’ facilitator, a peer mentoring programme aimed at supporting young people suffering varying degrees of bereavement and loss.Cynthia has come full circle and is a great example of what community development and community education are about and of the outcomes it has the potential to achieve. Other successes include; many previous centre users coming back to help out in a voluntary capacity, their ability to provide support to and facilitate many diverse groups, continued provision of community education, which empowers members of the community to take charge of their lives and participate in their community and their ability to network with various agencies and take lead roles in devising strategies.Conclusion Over the last 18 years the centre has grown and adapted to the ever changing needs of the community and is now a thriving and integral part of the community development structures in the area. As we see it, by continuing to work out of the principles and practices of community development as described by the Ad Hoc Committee, St.Kevin’s Family Resource Centre will continue to achieve effective community development, overcome challenges faced and continue to have many more successes in the future. Bibliography: Ad Hoc Committee (2008) Towards Standards for Quality Community Work, Dublin Motherway, Brian (2006) the Role of Community Development in Tackling Poverty in Ireland, Dublin, Combat Poverty Agency St. Kevin’s Family Resource Centre, Work Plan 2010-2012 Samantha H ogan Anthony Kelly Elaine Vince O’Hara 10th October 2012

My Values And Beliefs Of Nursing - 1170 Words

Philosophy of Nursing Everyone’s values and beliefs about the profession of nursing are all different. The four concepts of nursing are interrelated and all mean something different to every person, too. Throughout this paper, I will be reflecting on my values and beliefs about nursing through the four concepts while comparing them to a nursing theorist with views that are most similar to my own. My Values and Beliefs of Nursing I choose nursing as my future career because I enjoy working with others, helping others feel better, and educating people. These three topics are all involved in what nursing is. I believe that nursing is focused on the holistic care of individuals and their families in order to achieve and maintain an optimal level of health, a great quality of life, and comfort. This is done through the promoting healthy living, providing a safe environment, preventing illness, and the caring for the individual and the family. My Views of the Nursing Concepts After evaluating what the nursing concepts mean to me, I found that they are most similar to Florence Nightingale’s theory. For the first concept of nursing, I think it is the holistic care of individuals to provide an optimal level of health and function, comfort, safety, and education. With holistic care, nurses focus on the mind, body, and spirit. Not only does nursing deal with caring for the individual, but also education is a large part of nursing. To me, the second concept of nursing,Show MoreRelatedMy Philosophy Of Nursing Stems From Three Different Components : Personal Values, Beliefs, And Goals Essay1287 Words   |  6 PagesMy philosophy of nursing stems from three different components: personal values, beliefs, and goals. A nurse is not only an individual who provides medical care, but plays other crucial roles that help the patient thrive. The nurse is a researcher, advocate, educator and spiritual healer. 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