Organization Providing Alcohol And Drug Services: Impact Of Environment On Addiction Essay.

Discussion

The paper will discuss an organization that works for treating alcohol and other drug addictions among people. The organization provides services to meet the needs of people of specific diverse groups. The paper will also discuss the interplay that is evident between drug abuse and the environment. The environment often promotes alcohol intake, resulting in addiction among young age and adulthood as well. The paper also discusses the policy for substance use in the country and the implication the policy has on its people. This organization provides rehab facilities to patients who suffer from alcohol and drug abuse. They have many trained social workers who serve the individuals with addiction. And over thousands of patients have received treatment from the organization. The various policies that have been created in the country are aimed at reducing the rate of substance abuse and the huge impact that addiction has on society and public health.  Universal intervention aims at reducing the specific impact of health problems due to addiction among people across all age groups. A number of environmental factors impede human health and wellbeing. Environment plays an important role in defining family beliefs and attitudes, the influence of peer groups and community towards influencing heavily, addiction among people. Environment is also responsible for the occurrence of relapse of addiction after being cured from the addiction. Such an environment promotes addiction among the vulnerable people. Environmental factors promote addiction more among the vulnerable group of people, although it impacts greatly people of all ages.

There are many organizations that work for addiction in Australia. They provide alcohol and other drug treatment services. Their services start from the core and end up helping the client to receive from their alcohol consumption. The organization takes up the responsibility to talk to the local dealers and talk to the general practitioners if the patients need to be referred to their services. The public health care service systems of Australia, covers providing services to all Australian residents for health care and that includes alcohol and drug intake treatments. The website for the organization discusses the fact that the Medicare facility provided by the government, covers not every detail of medical facilities and thus fees payments need to be taken care of by the client’s personal accounts as well (White and Whaley 2019). Although, there are private health facilities that also provide health facilities to the patients who come for addiction treatment in rehab. The organization provides for rehab facilities. It can also be known that rehab services in Australia are accessible generally through assessment services. The assessment services help in the process of identification of the accurate needs of the client and thereby suggest the most effective therapeutic treatment services (Verdejo-Garcia et al. 2019). The hospital works in the North-eastern area. It is one of the leading mental and psychiatric disorder centres. It is an several bed treatment centre and provides life changing care for adolescents and adults from mental and behavioural disorders. They have several experienced psychologists and care providers who work with dedication for the cause and thus has made the centre one of the leading institutes for the cause.  The organization does provide care and service facilities even after the business hours so that treatment is never closed. The highly trained employees are always on the foot to provide health services to the clients whenever they want it. The organization provides service to the youth and also families of the country. The organization provides emergency support which includes a wide range of services to help youth of the country to address their physical and mental health systems to establish successful relationships and support the networks. This helps to access pathways to proper education and employment. The organization follows inclusive policy and provides services to all Australians, which also includes all communities of the country. It provides more a service than only alcohol and other drug addiction, for example relationship problems, the organization also helps in coping with the stress and pressure along with mental health and wellbeing (Tolliver and Anton 2022). The organization also states that alcohol and drug addiction is nothing to be ashamed of and can be talked about freely. The organization does to speak much about the strategies adopted to cater to the needs of particularly the diverse community people. The organization speaks about the fact that alcohol and other drugs make the addicts feel happy after the consumption for a little while, while it is important to understand that in the long run, the effect can be harmful for them. The organization also discusses the symptoms that make drug consumption a sign of problem for the consumers. They also provide emergency assistance, however do not discuss much about the emergency assistance it extends. The organization had launched campaigns in the local commutes of the community to let the Aboriginal community know that the organization stands firm by their side to let them know that there is no shame in talking about mental health, like addiction or any other and that the organization will provide services to them to heal from their mental health problems. Over the years, the number of community people seeking services from the organization has increased. The organizations serve the purpose of drug addiction among the diverse communities. They provide drug and alcohol rehabilitation and support for case management. They also provide support for the prevention of relapse and if needed referral to other organizations and service providers. They also provide counselling for those who suffer from both addiction and mental health problems (headspace.org.au 2022).

Interplay of Individuals, the Drug of use and The Environment

 Substance abuse is a major and prevalent public health concern among the young population. Tobacco smoking, risky alcohol consumption and illegal drug consumption also can be detected among the youth. Drugs impact the verbal and spatial working memory of the addicts. Risky behaviour is also often impacted by drug intake (Sygit et al. 2019.). Environment also affects the family beliefs and the attitudes of those who consume alcohol and related drugs (Nemati Shahmoradi and Rahimi 2020). Peer group, the community often influences the addiction among the individuals. These factors promote alcohol and drug consumption among the individuals. If the environment is supportive of alcohol consumption, the individuals get more into drug consumption and alcohol consumption. A person’s environment, like that of school, the workplace and the neighbourhood, encourages individuals and youths into addictions and alcohol consumption. They encourage the people to take drugs when they feel low to fight against their low moods. When the environment is one in which drugs and alcohol are made easily available, and more freely promoted, the chances of getting addicted is even more. The atmosphere is one in which they will have the potential to get affected by abuse and addiction. Parental influence and cultural norms often influence drug addiction. When the consumers consume drugs or alcohol, in their low mood, due to the influence of alcohol, and drugs, affects their mental health. It can lead to changes in the brain of the consumer. They are influenced by their peers to consume alcohol and drugs to fight  the feelings of isolation, anxiety and sadness. When the individuals feel free from their sadness and isolation, and alcohol consumption can help them fight with their depression, they are likely to consume drugs again and gradually get addicted to the drugs (Strang et al. 2020). However, they fail to realize that alcohol and related drugs can worsen their depression and the sense of feeling low to depression among the people. Media representation also leads to the increase in the alcohol consumption and promotes among the individuals the addictive behaviour in their early life experiences. Family dynamics and the interaction among the family members often promotes addiction. The parenteral styles and family interactions often play pivotal roles in developing mental health difficulties among the young and the later adulthood. The avoiding parenting style and the authoritarian parental style often leads to exposure to substance use (Benchaya et al. 2019). 

Peer pressure often also leads to social interaction which promotes substance abuse. The sense of belonging and feeling of connectedness often promotes the young people to get involved into potential alcohol or drug problems (Trucco 2020). Gradually, they get involved in problematic behaviours to feel connectedness and like-mindedness. This need for affiliation often leads to the act of maintaining the addiction (Ponnusamy et al. 2020). The behaviour and the habits that the friends show, often influences among the youths, the peer pressure due to which, they invariably show similar behaviour if drug abuse. Thus, the individuals, the environment, and the drug use often leads to addictive behaviour. Such a problem often leads to the likelihood of showing addictive behaviour among the individuals (Biolcati, Mancini and Trombini 2018). Social media in other times promotes benefits in the society but when they show that individuals are consuming alcohol and are enjoying their lives, viewers feel all the more isolated and get influenced towards alcohol consumption (Crawford et al. 2020). They will feel all the more attracted towards the consumption of alcohol. If they do not consume alcohol, due to the influence of social media and advertisement, they feel their self-esteem to be damaged and due to which they feel they will consume alcohol all the more (Servidio 2021).  

The interplay of individuals and social developmental factors leads to substance use and mental health challenges as they progress from childhood to adulthood. Influence of alcohol consumption often leads to problem behaviours often due to the influence of peers and environment. Drug use often is led to by the psychological aspects like the personality of the individuals.  Personality differences often lead to the differences in drug users and the drug nonusers. When individuals are affected by personality traits like low self-esteem and low trust on others, they are often affected by the needs to get addicted by the influence of the peers (Li, Liu and Dong 2019). 

Illicit drug consumption is in the recent past penalized with civil penalties for example fines. Drug supply is considered to be a criminal offense in the recent past in Australia (Kramer and Stoicescu 2021). 

Illegal drug production is often unregulated and thus many of the drugs are manufactured in the backyard labs to avoid being noticed by the government or the law protection enforcers. The effect of this is fatal on the consumers as they often do not understand how deadly the drugs are and what will be the consequences of the drug intake. Drug bust policies are often conducted in the country and the consequences of such policies are bare minimum on the consumers and the producers of illicit drugs (Chatwin 2018). As a consequence, many people in the country still have criminal records of possessing the illicit drugs and often consume them for personal use. Tus, it is evident that a new policy or approach is needed to approach the problem of illicit drugs.  In Australia, different penalties are often applied to different drug use and supply in different states of the country. For example, South Australia, or the Northern Territory have their own policies for illegal drugs. They have decriminalized cannabis and his leading to the application of civil penalties. Drug are often applied on individuals when they consume the drugs without meeting the stipulated eligibility criteria. While this is the case in these particular states, the other states of the country do not have decriminalization options for the illicit drugs supply or consumption and sale in their place (Hughes et al. 2018).

Cannabis drug consumption is often provided with depenalisation systems in all of the Australian states. Non-attendance to education centres if caught due to the influence of cannabis, can lead to being charged with criminal charges. Drugs other than cannabis are often repenalised by all states of the country other than NSW and Queensland. Decriminalization of drugs affects the consumption of drugs and their supply. Many researches have shown the effect of decriminalization of illicit drugs like cannabis.  One of the main negative effects of decriminalization of cannabis in Australia, includes net-widening.  It leads to an upsurge in the number of people being arrested and the number of people being charged. The extent of net-widening can be widened by the way decriminalization is implemented in society. Studies, on the contrary, have also shown that decriminalization leads to the reduction of drug use among existing as well as new users. Such a policy has reduced the cost of, criminal justice system within the country (Mills, Freeman and Davey 2022).

People in Australia have considered that drugs are substances whose use forms the part of human rights issues. While others agree with the policy of decriminalization for all drugs, a policy which includes providing caution and civil penalty. Decriminalization of illegal drugs often has the support of the citizens of the country to be effective in reducing the substantial harms of the drugs. While there is also a proportion of the population who does not agree with the policy (Park et al. 2020). 

The National Framework for Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Treatment 2019-29, is aimed at seeking alcohol and drug related addiction treatment for all Australians which includes all communities within the country. The framework aims at making high quality treatments which are appropriate for the needs, available for all the people of the country. The framework is indicative of analysing the principles of effective treatment, evaluation and monitoring the needs. The Australian Government has issued policies which state that people of diverse communities will be impacted harshly as they will be exposed to alcohol bans. Various substance abuse programs have been initiated for the adolescents of the diverse communities of Australia. They were provided with substance use education, and community involvement in different program development plans. The effect of prevention programs has led to reduced substance use among adolescents of diverse communities (Vujcich et al. 2018). 

Conclusion

Hence, it can be concluded that there are various organizations and hospitals who provide facilities to specific diverse groups to deal with their alcohol and drug consumption. The organization provides alcohol and drug services to the consumers. The organization provides facilities to all the citizens of the country and thus they are inclusive of diverse grip. The organization did not much discuss how they have adapted to meet the needs of the people of the diverse community but have stated that they have organized meetings at the local level to spread the word that the organization is present beside them in their trail to set themselves free from drug use. It can also be concluded that the individual, their drug use and the environment play an important role in influencing drug use. When the environment influences more use of drugs, chances of relapse after seeking anti-addiction services are common. Due to peer pressure also, drug use can increase among youth.    

References

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