Healthcare: Substance Abuse in Teenagers

This article discusses the prevalence and consequences of substance abuse in teenagers, particularly alcohol and drug abuse. It highlights the need for intervention and support, including counseling and rehabilitation services. The article also describes a project designed to address this issue and provide assistance to affected individuals.

Running head: HEALTHCARE
Healthcare
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HEALTHCARE
Introduction
Usage as well as abuse of alcohol and drugs by teenager have become highly common
and have the potential to have serious consequences. According to statistics, within the age range
from 15 years to 24 years, 50 percent of the deaths from homicides, accidents or suicide involves
drugs and alcohol (Newton et al., 2016). Along with this the abuse of alcohol and drugs also
contributes to physical as well as sexual harassment like rape and sexual assault. Possible stages
of teenage experience with alcohol as well as drugs are comprised of experimentation, regular
usage, abuse and dependency. If seen from an evolutionary perspective, it can be clearly
understand that that the significance of alcohol and drug abuse is three fold in nature, namely,
biology, psychology and social influence. All the three impacts are adverse in nature (Williams
et al., 2015). Repeated as well as regular recreational usage of drug and alcohol can lead to issues
like anxiety and depression. When it comes to the biological impact of drugs on a human body,
some of the major impact includes loosing brain and heart and profound metabolic alteration.
Considering the significance of the issue, it is highly crucial to implement schemes of assistance
for identification, counseling, treatment as well as rehabilitation of the addicts with the help of
voluntary resources like non government organization as well as TUA staff service. In order to
design an effective drug and alcohol abuse plan, a project will be designed (Curcio, Knott &
Mak, 2015). The chief stakeholder of the mentioned project includes the community partners
who are the students of the Torrens University Australia and the Alcohol and drug foundation.
(Berends, Jones & Andrews, 2016). Their chief role will be to provide paid voluntary services to
the community members affected with drug and alcohol abuse. The alcohol and drug foundation
is a nongovernmental organization that works for preventing harms associated with alcohol and
drug abuse. The organization takes community led actions to provide help the healthcare service

2HEALTHCARE
users get cured from both physical as well as physiological disease that has taken place for
overconsumption of alcohol and drugs.
Issue Description
Substance abuse that includes alcoholism opiate dependence or abuse of any substance
that has the potential to impose deleterious physiological as well as social effects is considered to
be a culture and public health issue affecting several millions of people in Australia. Along with
the individual who is directly affected, this disease also affects a large segment of population and
is comprised of a number of legal, social as well as health issues. According to Lubman et al.,
(2017), prejudice, misinformation contrary to the scientific advances in the field of substance
abuse has the potential to hinder the development of preventive early treatment programs.
According to WHO, approximately 9.3 percent of the adolescents between the age ranging from
12 years to 15 years are engaged in consumption of alcohol (Grigsby et al., 2016). When it
comes to drug, the percentage of male abusers between the age ranges of 12-17 is about 13.5
percent. The percentage is 8.2 for female alcohol and drug abusers.
Needs Assessment
In this section identification of the needs associated with the drug and alcohol abuse in
Australia that would enable the Torrens University staffs to use their volunteering day to engage
with the Alcohol and Drug Foundation will be performed. In Australia, it will be found that more
than 69.3 percent of the total percentage of people conducting drug and alcohol abuse is
performed by teenagers (Scholes-Balog et al., 2015). More than one-quarter of Australian
teenagers aged 16 to17 years put themselves at risk for short-term alcohol-related harm at least
once a month, and 17% use an illicit drug at least once a year. The chief needs that are detected

3HEALTHCARE
within the Australian community in order to deal with alcohol and drug abuse are provision of
appropriate healthcare service, low cost or cost free rehabilitation centers, physiological
counseling facilities and lack of appropriate measures to enhance the awareness of the people. It
will be found that majority of the drug and alcohol abusers in Australia, specially, the teenagers
lacks the knowledge of how adversely the evil practice an impose negative impact n their health.
Not only this, it will be detected that amongst the drug and alcohol abusers more than 53 percent
are indigenous people and teenagers who lacks the financial stability to invest on expensive
rehabilitation centers (Grigsby et al., 2016). Hence cost free or low cost rehabilitation centers
and physiological counseling is another major requirement for elimination of the drug and
alcohol abuse.
The project will take place in Brisbane. In order to select samples for the drug and
alcohol prevention project, the NUA staffs will conduct a survey. A non probability sampling
method will be used in order to conduct the survey. Data will be collected from households,
healthcare centers as well as high schools and colleges of the mentioned region. A set of
questionnaires to analyze whether the basic needs to prevent substance abuse is provided or not
will be developed. The collected survey will be examined and analyzed with the quantitative
analysis method. The TUA staffs will be conducting the procedure along with the help of the
members of the Alcohol and drug foundation. He chief stakeholders of the project include the
Alcohol and drug Foundation organization along with the interested students participating in the
project. Both face to face communication as well as virtual communication through email will be
used. The major potential challenges that may be faced by the TUA staffs while collecting data
for need analysis includes, lack of cooperation of the data collection sources and lack of
willingness of the participants to participates.

4HEALTHCARE
Project Design and Implementation Plan
The aim of the project is to provide service to the drug and alcohol abusers along with the
popular NGO organization namely, Alcohol and Drug foundation (Çiftçi Demirci et al., 2015).
The project is a one day volunteering plan developed to provide the participants with effective
physiological counseling along with enhancing their awareness of the negative impacts of drug
and alcohol abuse on their physiological, biological as well as social wellbeing.
Participants of the project
The mentioned NGO provides both physiological support and rehabilitation facilities to a
good number of people who are suffering from the evil practice of alcohol and drug abuse.
Considering the fact as per the data collected by the Alcohol and Drug foundation, the Saint
Stephen’s college located in Gold Coast , Queensland possess a good number of students who
are suffering from the mentioned disease. As per the principal and teacher of the mentioned
collage, lack of awareness within the students as well as effective physiological counseling, the
rate of drug and alcoholic abusers are increasing day by day in the collage. The TUA staffs will
provide service to the students of the mentioned collage in this volunteer day.
Project activities
Two project activities will be performed in order to conduct the public health issue
program. First of all, a healthcare campaign will be held inside the college where three eminent
psychologists of Australia will be hired. They will conduct free counseling of the students who
are suffering from the mentioned disease. Each counseling session will be approximately 15 to
20 minutes long. Along with this, a audio visual presentation will be shown to the students of
the college where the impact of drug and alcohol abuse on the biological, physiological well as

5HEALTHCARE
social welfare of an individual will be discussed. Along with this, videos of accidents that took
place in Brisbane recently for alcohol and drug abuse will also be shown to the students. The
three eminent philologists will be addressing the mentioned issue. Students will be given the
chance of asking questions to them.
Resource implications
For the first activity, that is physiological counseling, the chief resource that will be
needed includes the financial resource required to hire the three eminent philologists of
Australia. 50 percent of the financial resource required will be prodded by the Alcohol and Drug
Foundation and the other 50 will be provided by the Torrens University. The physical resources
like room, chair and tables will be provided by the college.
For the second project, the chief resources required will include projector, pointer,
auditorium and the audio visual presentation. The Audio visual presentation will be developed by
the volunteering students of the Torrens University. Considering the fact that the program will be
held in the college auditorium, the other physical resources will be provided by the collage. The
financial resource required for the second activity will be again provided by both the Torrens
University as well as the Alcohol and Drug Foundation.
Ethical consideration
During the project, no students will be forced to participate. The information collected
about the students will be kept highly confidential. Data collected during the counseling
procedure will also be kept highly confidential. No financial support from the students will be
asked during the counseling procedures.

6HEALTHCARE
Stakeholder involvement
The chief stakeholders off the project are the staffs of TNU and Alcohol and Drug
Foundation, the faculties of the Saint Stephen’s College and the three philologists. A meeting
will be conducted prior to the public health program where the specific roles and responsibilities
of all the stakeholders will be explained to them.
Gantt chart and Budget
Activity Starting date Duration
Identification of project area 01/07/2019 14
Formulate project questions 16/07/2019 9
Formulate project strategy,
design and others
20/07/2019 24
Write project proposal 16/08/2019 13
Preparing the audio visual
presentation
1/9/2019 23
Recruiting the physiologists 24/9/2019 2
Data Collection 26/09/2019 65
Data Analysis 26/11/2019 28
Final report and submission 27/12/2019 15

7HEALTHCARE
Data Analysis
Data Collection
Recruiting the physiologists
Preparing the audio visual presentation
Write project proposal
Formulate project strategy, design and others
Formulate project questions
Identification of project area
24-06-19 13-08-19 02-10-19 21-11-19 10-01-20
Budget planning
To complete the budget within given timeline i.e. 15‐Feb‐2017, the budget of the research is
estimated about $9,000. The justification for the budget is as follows:
 Approximately 5000 dollars will be needed to recruit each of the psychologists for more
than 12 hours on the volunteer day. Therefore for 3 psychologists, 15000 dollars will be
needed.
 For conducting the service of need analysis approximately 3000 word cont will be
needed.
 For analysis of the collected data, 2000 dollars will be needed.
 The same amount will be needed for preparing the audiovisual presentation
 Finally, for interview and survey post production, approximately 2000 dollars will be
needed.

8HEALTHCARE
Serial
number
purpose Estimated budget
1 Recruitment of the three psychologist 15000 dollars
2 Conducting the survey for need analysis 3,000 dollars
3 Data analysis 2000 dollars
4 Preparing the audiovisual presentation 2000 dollars
5 Data Collection: Interview and
Observations (post program)
2000 dollars
24,000 dollars
Evaluation Criteria
The effectiveness of the mentioned project can only be understood with the help In order
to evaluate the result of the Public Health Program conducted, a monitoring process will be
performed. A survey will be conducted in order to understand the change in perspective of the
students after participating in the public healthcare issue. The monitoring survey will be
conducted by the students of TUA. Along with that the monitoring of the rate of drug and
alcohol consumption of the students will also be performed. For this data will be collected from
the nearby alcohol shops. Along with this, a monthly check up of the students who were
subjected to expected drug and alcohol abuse will also be performed. The check up will enable
the Campaign organizers to understand the effectiveness of the public health program.
Along with this, in depth interview of the principal and two professors will be conducted
in order to understand the change in the amount of consumption of during and alcohol by the

9HEALTHCARE
students. A set of questionnaires containing 10 questions will be developed for the interview.
Teachers will asked by the changes noticed in the communication process of the students after
the event will be performed. Both the survey as well as the interview will be non paid. However,
the TUA staffs will be paid for conducting both the survey and the interview.
Key Public Health Principles
The key public health principle that is used for conducting the public health program
includes accessibility, public or community participation, health promotion and appropriate
usage of technology. The organizers of the mentioned program have made sure that all the
primary healthcare services are accessible, affordable and are provided equally to the participants
irrespective of their age, gender, location as well as ethnicity. When it comes to the participation
of the public or community, the program will involve all the community resources for promoting
health as well as addressing health problems from the grass root level. Considering the fact that
the mentioned program will be held in order to address the health issue of the organization, the
principle of health promotion will also be met. Finally, when it comes to the appropriate usage of
technology, medical technologies that are feasible, affordable as well as culturally acceptable to
the individuals of the community will be used. Along with that, technology will be used for
conducting an audio visual presentation for enhancing awards of the participants on negative
impact of alcohol and drug abuse.
Description of Proposed Staff Engagement Logistics and Outcomes
 One of the major logistic issues that may be faced by the program organizers during the
program is sudden failure of the equipments like computer or projector. In order to
manage such situations, a mechanic will be hired for emergency purpose.

10HEALTHCARE
 It is expected that the rate of consumption of the alcohol and drugs will get reduce to a
good extent in the Saint Stephen’s College.
 The awareness of the students will increase after the public health program conducted.
 The mentioned program will impose beneficial impact not only on the student associated
with abuse of drug and alcohol but will also be beneficial for the society. Considering the
fact that intense drug and alcohol abuse lead to social crimes like assault and rape,
diminishing the rate of over consumption of these substances will be beneficial for the
society.

11HEALTHCARE
Reference List
Berends, L., Jones, S. C., & Andrews, K. (2016). Adolescent drinking, social identity, and
parenting for safety: Perspectives from Australian adolescents and parents. Health &
place, 38, 22-29.
Çiftçi Demirci, A., Erdoğan, A., Yalçın, Ö., Yıldızhan, E., Koyuncu, Z., Eseroğlu, T., ... &
Evren, C. (2015). Sociodemographic characteristics and drug abuse patterns of
adolescents admitted for substance use disorder treatment in Istanbul. The American
journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 41(3), 212-219.
Curcio, A. L., Knott, V. E., & Mak, A. S. (2015). Why do young people engage in delinquency
and problem drinking? Views from adolescents and stakeholders. Australian
Psychologist, 50(5), 350-361.
Grigsby, T. J., Forster, M., Unger, J. B., & Sussman, S. (2016). Predictors of alcohol-related
negative consequences in adolescents: A systematic review of the literature and
implications for future research. Journal of Adolescence, 48, 18-35.
Lubman, D. I., Cheetham, A., Jorm, A. F., Berridge, B. J., Wilson, C., Blee, F., ... & Proimos, J.
(2017). Australian adolescents’ beliefs and help-seeking intentions towards peers
experiencing symptoms of depression and alcohol misuse. BMC public health, 17(1),
658.
Newton, N. C., Barrett, E. L., Castellanos-Ryan, N., Kelly, E., Champion, K. E., Stapinski, L., ...
& Teesson, M. (2016). The validity of the substance use risk profile scale (SURPS)
among Australian adolescents. Addictive Behaviors, 53, 23-30.

12HEALTHCARE
Scholes-Balog, K. E., Hemphill, S. A., Patton, G. C., & Toumbourou, J. W. (2015).
Relationships between substance use and depressive symptoms: a longitudinal study of
Australian adolescents. The Journal of Early Adolescence, 35(4), 538-561.
Williams, J. W., Canterford, L., Toumbourou, J. W., Patton, G. C., & Catalano, R. F. (2015).
Social development measures associated with problem behaviours and weight status in
Australian adolescents. Prevention science, 16(6), 822-831.