Psychology Report
Abstract
Prevalence of drug addiction amongst teenagers, pregnant women and young adults is raising concerns to the health stakeholders calling for the need to improve intervention measures for curbing the ugly trends. Addition tends to cause lasting effects on the user thereby compromising the ability of victims to undertake their duties either as learners, mothers or employees. There are various assessment, intervention and treatment options that therapists and clinicians use to address addiction but not every addiction case fits any intervention. A clear consideration of the interventions is necessary to assure the effectiveness. The objective of this paper is to examine screening and intervention tools for alcohol amongst adolescents, pregnant women and adults. The report unveils appropriate and specific screening tools for each group of addicts and suggests appropriate and effective interventions, treatment processes and assessments for the affected individuals. As such, the report offers a breakthrough in the road to recovery of the addicted person by examining the effectiveness of a few approaches.
Therapeutic Interventions for Alcohol Addiction in Adolescents, Pregnant Women and Young Adults
Introduction
Drug addiction, screening, assessment and intervention programs are diverting away from the traditional drug addiction interventions. There are countless options for treating drug addicts that therapists can choose from depending on client’s demographic characteristics. Most therapists prefer initiating a detoxification program for their clients to medically manage drug withdrawal. Detoxification is the process by which the body clears itself of the addicted drug by inducing it with another drug that works on neutralizing the effects of dependent drug. Detoxification is commonly used in instances of severe drug addiction after which clients are taken into a rehabilitation program/center (Miller, 2019). However, detoxification alone does not resolve the underlying impacts of addiction connected to psychological, social and behavioral effects of the drugs on users. This, therefore, call for therapist to accompany detoxification with formal assessments and drug addiction treatment to assure recovery of their clients.
To conduct successful therapeutic interventions for drug addicts, screening and assessments are applied to gather information regarding clients for better treatment. While assessing clients, therapists deal with the nature of the underlying problem and come up with specific treatment options as pertain to the problem. Treatment programs are specific for each individuals and may be customized depending on their needs. Clients may, however, choose their recovery options where the cases allow them as long as recovery is imminent. This report examines some of the effective screening tools and options for adolescents, adults and pregnant women because they impacts of addiction on their situation can ruin their health and future as compared to other populations (Kamath et al., 2020). Treatment plans for addicts in this category tend examine the historical backgrounds of their situations and possible health impacts of their interventions to assure effective and long-lasting recovery from their situations.
Gender and Age Perspectives of Drug addict Clients
Adolescents, pregnant mothers and young adults are amongst the most vulnerable populations as far as drug addiction is concerned. The prevalence of alcohol addiction amongst the youth in the US is estimated to be 13% teen males and 4% teen females are chronic drinkers during their high school and continue to drink heavily in their adulthood. This mostly affects teenagers between ages 12 and 20 years. Most adolescent are learners and getting into addiction adversely affects their performance in education (Kamath et al., 2020). Resolving the drug addiction challenge to the adolescents is the most immediate action that therapists are supposed to implement in helping the young people. The prevalence of alcoholism amongst pregnant mothers varies between the married and the unmarried women. About 11.5% of married women are alcohol addicts and the percentage more than twice for the unmarried women. Pregnant alcoholic mothers subject their fetus to risks of congenital complications and require proper rehabilitation plans salvage the health of the mother and its baby (Chapman & Wu, 2019).
Alcohol rehabilitation for these populations may encompass any of the rehabilitation formulas depending on the degree of addiction and response of the clients on the rehabilitation programs. This rehabilitation plans is specific for alcoholic addicts because alcohol is the most abused drug in teenagers, pregnant women and young adults. Reports further indicate that at least one in every 10 pregnant women abuses alcohol at one point during their gestation period. The reasons for alcohol abuse amongst pregnant women are not crystal clear but previous studies have attempted to link the tendency to routine drinking before conception, craving and peer influence either by their husband and friends. Therapeutic interventions for this population require proper screening and assessment to determine the suitable means to address the specific addiction problems facing the population (Kamath et al., 2020). The next section examines the available interventions for curbing alcohol addiction problems for the identified populations.
Therapeutic Interventions on Clients and Effectiveness
Recovering from addiction is not an easy process and may require high levels of discipline and determination to attain soberness. During engagement with therapist and counselors, a drug addict victim builds strong relationships with fellows who are in a recovering center and can relate to their situation and regain immense hope for recovering from their condition. Clients need to understand all types of treatment intervention available so that they can be wary of the way to recovery and believe that their choice or the suggested therapeutic option is the best approach to recovery (Stephens et al., 2019). Adolescents, pregnant women and young adults are highly likely to benefit from the following treatment and therapeutic interventions; detoxification, long-term and short-term residential treatment, outpatient and inpatient treatment programs and individualized drug counseling.
Detoxification
As noted earlier, detoxification is used to help people safely withdraw from alcoholic or other drug addiction until the drug is completely drained from the addict’s system. This process is effective for addicts recovering from moderate to severe conditions of drug addiction. Medication may be used for detoxification of an alcoholically addicted person although this depends on the degree of addiction and demographics of an individual. For instance, detoxification by use of drugs is not recommended for pregnant or breast feeding mothers because the drug process may affect the health of the baby (Vuong et a., 2019). Even as physicians administer detoxification for alcoholically addicted individuals, the process should be combined with other intervention to enable effectiveness of the therapy. This intervention may have side effects for one clients and it is advisable that detoxification be carried out in an inpatient or outpatient watch or a physician to render the process effective and harmless. This intervention is effective for the selected population because most of them such as the teenagers and young adults are chronic alcohol abusers and may require high levels of detoxifications to address their plight.
Long-term and Short-term residential treatments
Therapists may opt to undertake their clients through long-term and short-term residential treatments to help them recover from their addiction. Long-term treatment is generally a 24 hour intervention for addicts in a non-hospital setting such as the therapeutic community (CT). It often involves a planned length of stay such as 6 months or 12 months depending on the expected improvement rates. Under this form of intervention addiction is perceived to be a product of illicit individual socialization and psychological breakdown and re-socialization of an individual is the goal of this program (Miller, 2019). Damaging beliefs and behaviors are reconstructed during the program to assist an individual change their perceptions as influenced by alcohol and other drugs to change their patterns of behavior. Short-term residential treatments programs offer intensive intervention but on short term basis such as 3 to 6 weeks. Research indicates that long-term and short term therapeutic approaches such as CTC can be very effective for addicted individuals with special needs such as adolescents, pregnant women, mentally disturbed and homeless addicts. Hence, this approach is unique and specific to the demographics of selected in this report and will be effective in addressing their problems.
Outpatient and inpatient treatment programs
Outpatient and inpatient treatments, therapies and interventions are cited to be highly effective in neutralizing the impacts of alcohol addiction for teenagers, young adults and pregnant mothers. Outpatient programs are designed for individuals with busy schedules such as those who have jobs. Clients prefer attending to the programs as arranged by their mentor to balance with their work schedule. Some of the programs offer group counseling for clients which supplement the conventional treatment approaches for drug addicts. The problem with outpatient rehabilitation programs is that they do not detach an addict from real world thereby exposing clients to the risks of facing triggers and makes it difficult for an addict to recover in real time (Kamath et al., 2020). Inpatient treatment program for drug addicts are designed as inpatient rehabilitation centers that offer structured treatment programs which address victims’ addiction comprehensively. The approach requires patients to reside in a substance or drug-free facility and are provided with a 24/7 therapy and medical care. Inpatient rehab is suitable for individuals experiencing chronic addiction and those suffering from recurring mental disorders (Kamath et al., 2020). This program is effective for the teenagers, young adults and pregnant mothers because it addresses their needs and offers opportunity for avoidance through both clinical and therapeutic interventions.
Individualized drug counseling
Individualized counseling is a drug avoidance intervention that does not only focus on stopping or reducing a victim from using illicit drugs but also considers related aspects of a person’s addiction such as status of employment, family issues, depression and criminal activities. This interventional program focuses on short-term goals and aids patients to adopt strategies of coping with misuse of drugs and substances. The addiction counselor offers support for various needs of their client to ensure that they are improving as per their needs and attempt to address everything that tries to pull their clients back to the addictive habits (Stephens et al., 2019). Despite that people may be addicted to certain type of drug, every case is often unique and counselors offering therapies are supposed to address each case differently and try to find solutions for their clients. This type of approach is highly effective for pregnant mothers, adolescents and young adults because they often have unique reasons for getting into their addiction. This intervention is often merged by cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) to access one’s psychological behavior and their impact on alcohol and substance use. Cognitive behavior therapy is mostly applied in helping people to uncover problematic thoughts or feelings that often compromise their sober state and add on to their relapse into addiction (Vuong et a., 2019). The approach is very effective in treating recurring conditions of drug addiction in an individual thereby helping to restructure the mental status of the affected person. The intervention is suitable for the selected population or pregnant women, teenagers and young adults because they are highly prone to unique cases of addiction.
Conclusion
Drug abuse amongst teenagers, pregnant mothers and the youth is a complex issue that requires that requires public action through various interventions geared towards establishing a society free from drug dependency. Healthcare stakeholders are supposed to collaborate with health facilities and ensure that a full package of interventions is made available for populations requiring held or recovery from their conditions. As such, understanding various interventions and their effectiveness on certain groups is an essential factor for therapists and physicians so that they engage their clients with effective moves to assist in recovery. This report provides the basic knowledge required by actors when designing recovery process for addicts.
