Introduction
Pennsylvania is a vulnerable population on the basis of substance abuse. Seven percent of Pennsylvania residents use illicit drugs and the rate of death as a result of drugs has been reported to be greater than the national average. Among other drugs, heroin is the most commonly drug that is abused by residents of Pennsylvania. The National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) discovers the data on illicit drugs, alcohol as well as tobacco use, and it reported that 6.5% of residents in Pennsylvania use illicit drugs, with 8.02% as a national average and 3.11% using illicit drugs in combination with marijuana (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration). The high use of substance abuse has led to many losses of life than it could be imagined, which is 14.6% of a population of 100000 people, a number higher than the national rate which is 12.7% in a population of 100000 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Therefore, this data is proof that the state of Pennsylvania is the vulnerable population in need of assistance.
Health service needs
Substance Abuse Treatment Admissions Data(2010) depicted that drugs and substance abuse were very prominent in Pennsylvania, with heroin being the most abused drugs. As the graph below illustrates, health service needs are necessary for this City.
The need for a health service need is to give a population need and resources, as well as identifying their needs and gaps. In order to understand the health service need for the prevention of substance abuse as indicated by the graph above, the following must be put in place;
Planning: Planning Involves the generation and development of a plan which should cover policies, strategies, and practices as well as implementation programs that enhance the best prevention techniques. From the graph above, Heroin appears to be the most used drug in Pennsylvania. Therefore, there must be a strategic plan of preventing the intake of heroin first even before thinking of any strategy to prevent other drugs that have not dominated in this State.
Implementation: Implementation involves taking a real action to prevent substance abuse and to provide a program that will monitor the strategic plans. The implementation may include the collection of data like how many people are addicted to any substance and to what extent and duration they have been into drugs. As stated in the graph above, the higher the number of drug treatment episode, the more are people under those substances and the faster the implementation techniques required.
Proposed community program
As a way of helping the residents of Pennsylvania to lead a healthier elongated life, the Department enhances a preventive approach based on policies such as preventive and intervention basis their research on the number of people reported to engage in substance abuse. The models dictate on promoting the development of the youths, reduction of behaviors associated with risks, building assets and resilience as well as preventing behavioral problems throughout a person’s life. The proposed community program and a continuum of care that best suits the residents of Pennsylvania is the prevention program (Stevens, Smith & Reiner, 2009).
In Pennsylvania, the following departments are responsible for the prevention and management of substance abuse; Division of Prevention and Intervention, Bureau of Treatment, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, as well as Prevention and Intervention that focus on executing prevention programs and putting prevention policies in place to minimize substance intake. The principle focus of prevention program is to lower the risk factors that are related to substance abuse, thereby enhancing a healthy lifestyle for all the individuals. Besides, prevention is delivered before the disorders occur and are mostly intended to reduce the development of health problem directly linked to the age of persons such as illicit drug use, as well as underage alcohol consumption. The illustration below shows Total Prevention Services as Reported to PBPS State Fiscal Years 2008-2009 through 2012-2013
The prevention program entails the following;
Information Dissemination, which gives an insight on substance abuse, and how it can affect a person, especially after taking in excess for a long time. It also gives knowledge on the best prevention techniques as well as prevention program that a person may opt to engage in after realizing they are addicted to drugs and substances. Information dissemination is the passing of information from the source to the audience with minimum contact between the two, such as the use of newsletters and media.
Education involves a two-way communication strategy between the educator and the audience. Many people have engaged in substance abuse, some willingly while other unwillingly. Therefore, there is a need to educate them and create awareness on drugs to enable people take necessary precautions and lead a good life.
Problem identification and referral is also an important aspect of substance abuse prevention. Under this service, the targets are those individuals who have engaged in drugs at a tender age, and those who consume drugs in excess. The importance of targeting these individuals is to depict whether their behaviors can be overturned through education. By doing so, many individuals, especially those engaging in heroin abuse can be rehabilitated to reduce the high number and transform their lives for the better.
The community-based process is directly connected to helping the community that comes up with strategies that prevent substance use disorders. For instance, community-based processes include networking, planning, inter-agency collaboration as well as organizing, all of which are meant to promote the knowledge of substance abuse, and how it can be reduced.
Environmental prevention is designed to alter the written and unwritten standards, codes, attitudes and ordinances in the community, so as to influence the prevention of substance abuse. Under environmental prevention, there are those activities dictated to initiate actions and those that initiate regulations on substance use, examples being social norms marketing and printed materials that are counter-advertising.
Social and cultural norms
Just like any other Country, Pennsylvania has its social and cultural norms that govern them to act in accordance with the law. Young people, as well as school going boys and girls, are not supposed to take any substance. Older people are not supposed to take highly addictive drugs such as cocaine, heroin as well as marijuana. However, cases of substance abuse in Pennsylvania are very high, with the majority of people believed to take cocaine and other being binge drinkers. Besides, high school students were realized to take marijuana, which is culturally unacceptable. Therefore, drug trafficking is not allowed in this state for the sake of decency of residence. Again, it is forbidden to drive, operate or control a moving vehicle, according to Pennsylvania law (Section 3802). The vulnerable population is supposed to benefit from the health care system by going and staying in the hospitals, clinic visits as well as emergency visits by health care professionals.
Overcoming social and cultural differences can be administered through rehabilitation, single service type, as well as the recurring service type. The single service type is one-time preventive services which inform a specific and general population about substance abuse. The recurring service type is a series of programs pre-planned to inform and educate people on substance intake and abuse. Rehabilitation is a program meant to transform an individual from substance intake. Under rehabilitation, a person is taught about the dangers of drugs, and he or she is helped to overcome by following distinct procedures which involve gradual withdraw of drugs (DiClemente, Nidecker & Bellack, 2008).
Community agencies
In order to implement the program, there is a need to collaborate with other community agencies such as Pennsylvania Behavioral Health and Aging Coalition and Office of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Service. Basically, these agencies give an insight of the best preventive approach which, once followed, can lead to a tremendous reduction in substance abuse. These agencies can help the continuum of care that focuses on preventing substance abuse. This is because, with these agencies, the discussion of collaborating and coming up with strategies meant to provide services that help seniors in the community who are addicted to substance abuse. These agencies also seem to provide services that are not covered in the initial program such as providing a guide to substance abuse for the OMHSA older adults planning council. They will also help in the provision of information on individual addicted to substance abuse and those individuals in a risk of suicide after consuming drugs. They also provide the information on medicinal prescription because the left-over medicine may be abused by other people within the households.
Funding Agencies
Block Grants for Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse is one of the US federal funding sources (Horgan & Merrick, 2002). This funding source helps to help programs that aim to prevent substance abuse by the residence of Pennsylvania. In order for one to receive funding from this source, they must meet some standards in that they must come from United States governments and States.
One of the State funded agencies are the Pennsylvania Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs. This department is a funding source in the state of Pennsylvania that has a desire to prevent substance abuse by people of all ages. For one to be eligible to receive funds from this department, one must have a desire to stop drinking or taking drugs because it is a self-supporting department aiming to prevent substance abuse by giving funds to those willing to promote this program.
Johnson & Johnson are another source of funding in Pennsylvania, which can be very helpful in funding the prevention program of substance abuse. Eligibility to get funds is determined by the kind of organization to put in place, and it must be a non-profit organization with a desire to prevent substance abuse to promote the well being of people as well as improving their health.
Services in Supportive Housing (SSH) are a program that aims at funding homeless individuals who have been driven to the state of homelessness by substance intake and abuse. SSH gives funds to the non-profit organization, and therefore, an organization must be based on helping people rather than making the profit for them to get finance from SSH.
References
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration - State Estimates of Substance Use from the 2007–2008 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: http://oas.samhsa.gov/2k8state/Cover.pdf
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention - National Vital Statistics Reports Volume 58, Number 19 for 2007: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr58/nvsr58_19.pdf
DiClemente, C. C., Nidecker, M., & Bellack, A. S. (2008). Motivation and the Stages of Change among Individuals with Severe Mental Illness and Substance Abuse Disorders. Journal of substance abuse treatment, 34(1), 25-35.
Horgan, C. M., & Merrick, E. L. (2002). Financing of Substance Abuse Treatment Services. In Alcoholism (pp. 229-252). Springer US.
Stevens, P., Smith, R. L., & Reiner, S. M. (2009). Substance Abuse Counseling: Theory and Practice. 4th Edition Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Pearson, c2009. xxi, 433 p.: ill.; 24 cm.
