Preventing Harmful Drug Use Within the Community - Annotated Bibliography

Johnson, K. W., Grube, J. W., Ogilvie, K. A., Collins, D., Courser, M., Dirks, L. G., ... & Driscoll, D. (2012). A community prevention model to prevent children from inhaling and ingesting harmful legal products. Evaluation and program planning, 35(1), 113-123.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The authors of this article describe a community prevention model that is geared towards hindering the misuse of harmful legal products. Such products entail inhaling of household items, over the counter substance, and prescription drugs that are very harmful in contemporary American society. In this case, the general population being studied here are the children who are susceptible and vulnerable to misuse of the harmful legal products. The ethnic group being focused here is not specific since the research cuts across all children in the United States. The authors did collect the samples from parents of fifth through seventh-grade students. The selection of the samples was made randomly, and all the respondents' views were inculcated in the study and research.

The article employed the use of a school survey to provide first-hand data from children regarding how they interact with the harmful legal products at home and within their reach (Johnson et al. 2012). The research then involved the use of Randomized-controlled trial in rural communities as one of the statistical methods to analyze the collected data. The randomized-controlled trial in rural communities did indicate the interest and urge of community people to end the misuse of legal and harmful drug substances among the children. This article concluded that environmental strategies are the best techniques that the community can employ to curb the misuse of legal harmful drug use among the children. The findings, therefore, fit in my area of interest since it forms a basis of preventing abuse of some of the substances regarded as being legal in the community. Ideally, this article inculcated the best research or study design ever. It employed a descriptive study design that interviews the respondents with the help of the study survey. In this aspect, it ensured that only first-hand information was recorded to help in analyzing the findings or best strategies of preventing misuse of harmful legal products.

I believe that media advocacy as one of the preventive measures can work in my community as well. This is because many people have access to social media and platforms hence passing vital information through media can reach a large population. Indeed, media advocacy is the best strategy to employ to prevent misuse of harmful legal products.

Gale, M. S., & John, A. (2017). Prevention of Drug Use and Treatment of Drug Use Disorders in Rural Settings.

Gale and John in this article analyze guidelines for the policymakers, local authorities, and public officials regarding a manner in which they can deal and prevent excessive drug use in rural areas. In this regards, the article focuses on policymakers from different countries by giving them insight on how best they can deal with local or rural drug abuse. The intended audience of this article are the ministers from health departments, policy makers, and public especially those in rural areas. This article has employed the use of questionnaires to collect personal information focusing on rural drug abuse. The questionnaires have open-ended questions that enable one to express themselves and give a personal opinion on the perceived problem. Conversely, the authors used both qualitative and quantitative research methods to analyze the findings and reach a conclusion.

The article depicts one outstanding finding as far as rural drug abuse, and preventive mechanisms are concerned. The article supports that internet assisted approaches can be used to reduce the consumption of alcohol and illicit drug substances in rural areas. This is because internet assisted approaches to aid in fostering coping skills and boost mental health among the victims (Gale & John, 2017). Additionally, the article advises the policymakers to make good use of mobile teams to provide intervention programs to rural residents and how best they can avoid abusing hard drugs. The above findings fit in my area of interest since as a community psychologist I need to bring change to the people and propose better avenues of development.

Mobile teams are important towards enlightening the community against the use of drug substances that are harmful to health. This is because they can meet individuals in their original settings and explain the adverse effects of drug and substance abuse. Mobile teams can as well be used in my backyard community to bring change to the rural population and teach them effects of abusing drugs and illicit substances.

Das, J. K., Salam, R. A., Arshad, A., Finkelstein, Y., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2016). Interventions for adolescent substance abuse: An overview of systematic reviews. Journal of Adolescent Health, 59(4), S61-S75.

The article indicates that the adolescent stage is characterized by unethical behaviors that are detrimental to individual health. Various communities have suffered from adverse effects of drug abuse that is most prevalent among adolescent youths. In this case, the article studies adolescent boys and girls and how they abuse drug substances. The population, therefore, cuts across all the ethnic groups but center on the demographic aspect of the United States of America. The article systematically sampled the literature on the same topic that was published up to 2015 to propose better intervention strategies for dealing with drug abuse among adolescents. The quality of the literatures was then analyzed by the use and criterion of 11-point assessment of the methodological quality of systematic reviews (AMSTAR). This criterion excluded nonsystematic reviews or reports that did not address the appropriate intervention strategy (Das et al. 2016). The article found out that school-based delivery platform is the best strategy to use when improvising intervention methods towards curbing drug abuse among adolescents. This is as compared to digital and policy initiative platforms that are not applicable at the community level.

The article employed systematic review study design that summarizes the literature based on a given issue and evaluating their findings. Such a study design gives organized information on a specific topic which was ideal for the study. Indeed, as depicted in the article, I believe that school-based intervention can be employed in community level to nurture good behavior among adolescents and reduce the tendency of harmful drug abuse among the youths.

Warren F. (December 2016). What works' in drug education and prevention? Journal of health and social care. Scottish Government.

This research focuses on the prevention of drug abuse in Scotland by explaining intervention strategies that work best to curb the spread of illicit substance abuse among young people. The demographic population being studied here are the youths from Scotland that for a long time have been involved in abusing harmful drugs. The Scottish government did the research, and they did collect the evidence from various literature or sources to conclude the best education on the prevention of drug abuse. Also, the article used a qualitative method to analyze the collected data from various research works regarding the best intervention program that can be used to curb drug use (Warren, 2016). It was then evidenced in the article that there exist relevant and irrelevant intervention strategies that can be used to prevent adolescents from using harmful drug substances.

My assessment of the study design that was used by Fran in this article is attributed to how he collected the evidence. The author employed a systematic review approach to collect viable information about the topic. This made it possible for the desirable findings to be reached. Indeed, the research design is acceptable in such research problems given the fact that it involves a comparison of various intervention strategies. Notably, the final finding of the article indicated that ineffective intervention strategies are those that result in negative or adverse impacts on substance use behaviors especially when they are compared to no intervention. Finally, the authors did conclude that interactive programs are the best intervention strategies towards educating children on negative effects of using hard drugs. This can be applied in my community since it will help learners and children to brainstorm and freely discuss the negative effects of harmful drug abuse.

Australian Drug Foundation (2014) Preventing alcohol and drug problems in your community: A practical guide to planning programs and campaigns. Retrieved from https://adf.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Preventing-AOD-problems.pdf

The article focuses on how best alcohol and drug use can be prevented in the community level by volunteers as well as policymakers. The general population being studied or identified in this case are drug addicts from the local community level. The article collects pieces of advice from various posters mainly to educate the community on the negative effects of alcohol and drug use. According to the article various strategies can be used to reduce alcohol and drug use within the community level. Some of these strategies as depicted in the article ranges from media advocacy, workplace sensitization, and workshops in various healthcare facilities or schools.

The article major on qualitative research method to present the findings by describing every aspect of the intervention program geared towards helping severe or heavy drug users within the community level. Most interesting is the fact that the article concludes that the introduction of strict liquor policies can help reduce the usage of such drugs within the local levels (Australian Drug Foundation, 2014). To add on, the author of the article used a descriptive study design to identify some of the intervention strategies that can help in reducing alcohol and drug use at the community level. Indeed, one approach that can be applied in my community is a strict liquor license that will ensure that illicit drugs do not have every other individual within rural areas.

References

Australian Drug Foundation (2014) Preventing alcohol and drug problems in your community: A practical guide to planning programs and campaigns. Retrieved from https://adf.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Preventing-AOD-problems.pdf

Das, J. K., Salam, R. A., Arshad, A., Finkelstein, Y., & Bhutta, Z. A. (2016). Interventions for adolescent substance abuse: An overview of systematic reviews. Journal of Adolescent Health, 59(4), S61-S75.

Gale, M. S., & John, A. (2017). Prevention of Drug Use and Treatment of Drug Use Disorders in Rural Settings.

Johnson, K. W., Grube, J. W., Ogilvie, K. A., Collins, D., Courser, M., Dirks, L. G., ... & Driscoll, D. (2012). A community prevention model to prevent children from inhaling and ingesting harmful legal products. Evaluation and program planning, 35(1), 113-123.

Fran Warren (December 2016). What works' in drug education and prevention? Journal of health and social care. Scottish Government.