Drug Addiction Among Australian Youths and Prevention

Drug addiction has a devastating and chronic impact on human body and mind. According to the National Drug Strategy Household Survey, 2016, among the Australian people around 3.1 million Australians are taking illegal drugs. In fact, more than 23,000 secondary students in the age between 12 and 17 have practise of taking drugs. Learn more about drug prevention methods, traditional treatment, and social innovation approach to prevent drug addiction among Australian youths. Read more on Desklib.

DRUG ADDICTION AMONG AUSTRALIAN YOUTHS AND
PREVENTION

Key Facts
 Drug addiction has a devastating and chronic
impact on human body and mind.
 According to the National Drug Strategy
Household Survey, 2016, among the Australian
people around 3.1 million Australians are taking
illegal drugs.
 In fact, more than 23,000 secondary students in
the age between 12 and 17 have practise of
taking drugs.
 36% of the Australian youths and college goers
are suffering with Alcohol problems.
 Moreover, 10% of them use other kinds of drugs
like Cannabis (Van Wormer & Davis, 2016).
 Using hallucinogens like LSD are very rare and
approximately 97% of the Australians never
having used it.
 Among them, 2% of the students use
performance enhancing drugs such as steroids.

Drug prevention methods
There are some universal programs
that address risk and protective factors
common to all children in a given
setting such as schools or community.
In addition to this, the selective
programs are set up with the purpose
to target limited groups of children and
youths who are suffering with drug
addiction (Bogenschutz & Johnson,
2016).
Furthermore, there is another drug
preventive program which is restricted
to individual drug abusers. It is known
as the indicated program which are
primarily put emphasis on the children
and youths addicted to drugs and
alcohol.

The traditional method
• According to the National Institute of
Drug Abuse, there are a series of
traditional treatment which encapsulate
individual program to group treatments.
It is the role of the doctor to understand
the intensity of drug addiction of the
patient and prescribes accordingly.
• In this regards, the long term residential
treatment is very effective which
encompasses the treatment method
under 24 hour surveillance. It can be
considered that the residential treatment
model is best suited in the therapeutic
community. The necessary time of
treatment is calculated from 6 months to
a year (Bogenschutz & Johnson, 2016).

The traditional method
Moreover, the short-term residential treatment is
referred to a modified twelve step approach. It can be
argued that this measure is primarily designed for the
problem with alcohol addiction. The model is consisted
of a 3 to 6 week hospital based patient treatment. The
purpose of this treatment is to reduce the risk of
relapse after the patient leaves the community.
On the other hand, the outpatient treatment program
depends on the variety and type of services. It can be
stated that this kind of treatment is cost redeeming
treatment and incorporates methods like residential
programs and services.
Besides this, the Individual drug counselling is also
popular among doctors that focus on preventing or
reducing use of illicit drugs. This kind of treatment can
be seen in the field of employment status, illegal
activities and social relations. It also requires 12step
participation and associated with other medical and
psychiatric services (Nutt, King & Nichols, 2013).

THE SOCIAL INNOVATION APPROACH
 The social innovation approach is
primary focused on the role of
society in preventing illegal use of
drugs and alcohol.
 It includes a number of methods
from incorporating the community
program to make an individual
drug treatment therapy.
 In this regards, it attributes some
new process and techniques in the
field of drug preventing measures
such as topiramate treatment for
the alcoholic patients and
Repetitive transcranical magnetic
stimulation (Bellamoliet al., 2014).

Reference
Bellamoli, E., Manganotti, P., Schwartz, R. P., Rimondo, C.,
Gomma, M., & Serpelloni, G. (2014). rTMS in the treatment
of drug addiction: an update about human
studies. Behavioural neurology, 2014.
Bogenschutz, M. P., & Johnson, M. W. (2016). Classic
hallucinogens in the treatment of addictions. Progress in
Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 64,
250-258.
Nutt, D. J., King, L. A., & Nichols, D. E. (2013). Effects of
Schedule I drug laws on neuroscience research and
treatment innovation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 14(8),
577.
Van Wormer, K., & Davis, D. R. (2016). Addiction treatment.
Cengage Learning.