Alcohol and Substance Abusers: Vulnerable Population and Health Disparities

This assignment focuses on alcohol and substance abusers as the main vulnerable population of choice. It describes primary factors that contribute to the development of health disparity among the vulnerable population, how culture and ethnic background influence physical and psychological health, strategies for communication and incorporation of cultural information in nursing practice, and the role of nurses in decreasing health disparities.

Running head: ALCOHOL AND SUBSTANCE ABUSERS
ALCOHOL AND SUBSTANCE ABUSERS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
The following assignment will focus on alcohol and substance abusers as the main
vulnerable population of choice. The paper will initiate by giving proper justification
regarding why this group of population is vulnerable. This will be followed by primary
factors that contribute to the development of health disparity among the vulnerable
population. Proper explanation will be given about how culture and ethnic background
influence physical and psychological health. Strategies will be described communication in
order to increase health awareness and incorporation of the cultural information in nursing
practice. At the end, the paper will describe the ways in which cultural background of the
nursing students influence the nursing care
Vulnerable population
Alcohol and the substance abusers percentage is gradually increasing in the USA.
During 2013, nearly 24.6 million Americans who are aged 12 years or above are the victims
of alcohol and substance abuse and the percentage amounts to nearly 9.4% in comparison to
the 8.3% recorded in 2002. The increase in the percentage of the drugs and the substance
abuse among the USA population is attributed to increase in the use of the marijuana while
the drinking of alcohol has reduced from 28.8% to 22.7% [National Institute on Drug Abuse
(NIH), 2015]. Population suffering from alcohol and substance are vulnerable towards
developing numerous health complications like cardiovascular disease, cancer and in mental
health complications. Substance abuse also increases the risk of developing infectious yet
contagious diseases like HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). The alcohol
and substance abusers population is also prone to motor vehicle accident (NIH, 2019).

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Primary factors contributing to health disparities
Several factors contribute to the development of health disparities in the US like age,
gender, socio-economic status, environment, climate and location. The social isolation,
employment opportunity and educational status also play an importance role behind the
development of the health disparity (Poteat et al., 2016). Alcohol usage is higher among the
young adults in the USA. 623,000 adolescents who are aged between 12 to 17 years are more
like to suffer from the alcohol and substance abuse. Men (9.8 million men) in comparison to
women (5.3 million) are prone to indulge into substance and alcohol abuse. The rate of
substance and alcohol abuse is higher among the Hispanic group of population in the USA in
comparison to the non-Hispanic Whites. Poor employment opportunity and poor socio-
economic status are the reason behind high rate of alcohol and substance abuse among this
population (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2019). This is the reason
why the alcohol use disorder is higher among the Hispanic subgroups in the USA, the largest
ethnic minority group in the USA and the heterogeneous group in comparison to the non-
Hispanic whites and Puerto Ricans (Ríos-Bedoya & Freile-Salinas, 2014).
Culture and ethnicity on physical and psychological health of vulnerable population
Differing values and beliefs across different cultures have a significant impact on the
psychological and physical health vulnerable group of population leading to the generation of
significant health burden. For example, Cuban-Americans are tendency to smoke cigarettes in
their fifth and sixth grade that increases the vulnerability of developing intoxication in the
later stages of life (Bridges et al., 2018). The non-Hispanic group of population follows
patriarchal culture and is associated with domestic violence against the women. Non-
Hispanic women suffer from poor mental and physical health condition. The depressive state
of mind forces them to indulge in substance and alcohol abuse. The tendency to quit

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education in mid-way or lazy mindset of the Hispanic black population increase the rate of
unemployment among them creating poor mental and physical health impact (Bridges et al.,
2018).
Strategies successful communication
USA is a land of diverse population with differing languages for communication. The
main communication strategy that needs to be implemented includes recruiting nurses from
the different cultural backgrounds who are well-equipped with colloquial languages of
different group of population from different ethical backgrounds. The community based
interactive approaches by the use of group discussion and power-point presentations can
prove to be effective for reducing the rate of alcohol and substance abuse (Renfro et al.,
2018).
Applied strategies for incorporating cultural information
There are several ways to implement nursing care via incorporating cultural
information. A nursing professional who is well-equipped with the trans-cultural nursing is
the best suited perform to recruit the cultural information in the applied strategies for nursing.
In order to increase the level of cultural competence among the nursing professionals, the
nursing professionals must attain rigorous training under the supervision of the trained
transcultural nurse (Giger, 2016).
Role of nurses in decreasing health disparities
The nursing professionals play a significant role in reducing the health disparities that
is increasing the rate of substance and alcohol abuse. The nursing professionals are one of the
healthcare professionals who spend their majority of their time with the patients (Holland,
2017). Thus their role entail in increasing the health-awareness among the alcohol and the

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substance abuses by the use of the effective communication skills. the use of the effective
communication skills will help in the development of the therapeutic relationship among the
patients and thereby helping to facilitate the promotion of the health awareness like educating
the mass about the ill-effects of alcohol and substance abuse (Holland, 2017).
Cultural background of the student and influence of nursing care
Cultural-background plays an important role in influencing the nursing care plan for
the alcohol and substance abusers (Holland, 2017). For example, if a nurse cultural and ethnic
belief teach him or her that consumption of alcohol is a crime then she or she might look
down upon the patients who belong to the class of the alcohol abusers and thus creating a gap
in comprehensive implementation of the care plan. Proper training in the cultural
competitiveness of each and every nurse will help to overcome the tendency of
marginalization of the patients under the healthcare practices (Holland, 2017).
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion it can be concluded that though the rate of alcohol
abuse is decreasing in the USA, the rate of increase in the marijuana consumption is
increasing the overall rate of the alcohol and substance abuse. The non-Hispanic group of
population is the main victims of the drug abuse. The poor socio-economic background is the
reason behind the increase rate of health disparity among them. A nursing professional must
implement a culturally competent care plan along with culturally competent communication
skills in order to overcome health disparity.

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References
Bridges, A. J., Karlsson, M. E., Jackson, J. C., Andrews III, A. R., & Villalobos, B. T.
(2018). Barriers to and methods of help seeking for domestic violence victimization:
A comparison of Hispanic and non-Hispanic White women residing in the United
States. Violence against women, 24(15), 1810-1829.
Giger, J. N. (2016). Transcultural Nursing-E-Book: Assessment and Intervention. Elsevier
Health Sciences.
Holland, K. (2017). Cultural awareness in nursing and health care: an introductory text.
Routledge.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. (2019). Alcohol and the Hispanic
Community. Access date: 27th September 2019. Retrieved from:
https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/brochures-and-fact-sheets/alcohol-and-
hispanic-community
National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2015). Nationwide Trends. Access date: 27th September
2019. Retrieved from: https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugfacts/nationwide-
trends
National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2018). Alcohol Facts and Statistics. Access date: 27th
September 2019. Retrieved from: https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-facts-and-
statistics
National Institute on Drug Abuse. (2019).What are the other health consequences of drug
addiction?. Access date: 27th September 2019. Retrieved from:

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https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-science-addiction/
addiction-health
Poteat, T., Scheim, A., Xavier, J., Reisner, S., &Baral, S. (2016). Global epidemiology of
HIV infection and related syndemics affecting transgender people. Journal of
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Renfro, C., Ferreri, S., Barber, T., & Foley, S. (2018). Development of a communication
strategy to increase interprofessional collaboration in the outpatient
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Ríos-Bedoya, C. F., & Freile-Salinas, D. (2014). Incidence of alcohol use disorders among
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