Substance Addiction and Treatment †Free Samples to Students

Question: Discuss about the Substance Addiction and Treatment. Answer: Introduction: Generally, people think that only young adults and teens are affected by drug and alcohol abuse, however, it is not true as many elders are also suffering from the problems related to drugs and alcohol. Irrespective of countries, the numbers of older adults with the problem of substance abuse are getting higher day after day. The elder adults may be addicted to illicit drugs or may use the prescribed medicine in a wrong way such as consuming it after mixing it with alcohol (Herie et al, 2013). To counsel the addicted elders, the counselor has to first identify the exact problem to bring the individual to normal life. The counselor uses the few standardized tools available to screen the problems related to misusing of prescribed medicine. The second step of screening the patient is to do a proper assessment to determine the steps the counselor is going to take to properly treat the patient. While doing the assessment for older adults, the counselor has to consider the following criteria- mobility, diet, losses, mental health, capacity, physical health, social support, alcohol, literacy, speech, culture and any kind of abuse to make the whole process of counseling as appropriate as possible (Herie et al, 2013). The third step the counselor has to take is the treatment. The process of treatment is the same for the older adults and the younger people (Kuerbis et al., 2014). The treatments for substance abuse include medicines, counseling, and detoxification. In the case of medicine abuse, the doctor or the counselor can start their treatment by letting the patient know about the bad effect of the medicine and by organizing the intake of all the medicines. The doctor or the counselor also has to determine the severity of the problem by classifying them into some distinct groups. Some of the late onset patients can also show the withdrawal symptoms during the treatment. The doctor has to treat the patients with the withdrawal symptoms accordingly. The treatment of the problem for the people of different stages of addiction is different. The counselor has to consider all these criteria while treating them. The counselor should consider the age and the special needs of the patient during the treatment. References: Herie, M., Skinner, W. J. W., Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. (2013).Fundamentals of addiction: A practical guide for counselors (4th edition). p=3431464, 592-605 Kuerbis, A., Sacco, P., Blazer, D. G., Moore, A. A. (2014). Substance abuse among older adults.Clinics in geriatric medicine,30(3), 629.