Drug and Alcohol Abuse among Aboriginal Youths

Running head: PUBLIC HEALTH
PUBLIC HEALTH
Name of the student
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Introduction
Adolescents or young adulthood is the main developmental period, which is typically
characterized by a sequence of life transitions, like going through and leaving the compulsory
education system, making new peers, entering employment. Younger people experience greater
freedom and less control than they normally experience during the childhood (Snijder et al.,
2018). This appears to be one of the particular issue related to drug and alcohol abuse among the
aboriginal male aged between 13 to 24 years. The consumption of alcohol and drugs is one of the
main cause of preventable disease and illness in Australia. , including the main trends in the
availability, harm, consumption and treatment for the vulnerable population (Snijder et al.,
2018).
The report aims to discuss about a current health issue like drug and alcohol abuse among
the aboriginal youths aged 13 to 14 years. In order to do so, the report will critically interpret the
methods for the building up of the community constituencies and collaborations directed to an
advancing youth health within the local primary health care settings. Furthermore, this report
will also provide with some sets of recommendations of how the public health care workers can
support this groups of population to prevent, minimize and alleviate the health condition.
Impact of alcoholism and illicit drug use
Indigenous people have the oldest culture in the world. One of the common experience
among the indigenous people is the lasting impact of colonization that continues to impact the
health and the wellbeing of many indigenous people nowadays. Additionally with the lower
outcomes in many social determinants of health like education, poor access to the health care
services, racism, housing and unemployment increases the susceptibility of the drug and alcohol

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abuse. Hence, the prevention of the substance use among the adolescents has been identified as
one of the key areas to improve the health of the indigenous people. Substance use and
alcoholism has been evident in the lower age. In Australia, the substance use among the
aboriginals is reported to be 2-6 years earlier than the national average (Snijder et al., 2018). The
Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islanders are 4 times more likely to report about injecting drugs.
In Australia, the indigenous adolescents aged between 14-15 years are five times more likely to
report about the use of the cannabis and are more than twice to report about excessive use of the
alcohol when compared to the non0indegenius counterparts (Snijder et al., 2018). The early onset
of the substance abuse has been found to be identified as one of the risk factors for the
problematic substance abuse later in the life.
Alcoholism and drug abuse have well documented effect on the substance users. The
prolonged use of the drugs and the alcohol not only deteriorates the health of a person, but also
impairs the mental health and also damages the spirit of the person (Doyle et al., 2018).
Alcoholism and drug abuse impacts both the users and the society, from the health risk of the
users to the increased risk of early pregnancy, financial cost, accidents and the productivity cost.
The three main causes of death due to alcoholism and drug abuse has been found to be motor
vehicle accidents, suicide and homicide (Geia, Broadfield, Grainger, Day & Watkin‐Lui, 2018).
Adolescent people have stated that in the last two weeks they have either driven under the
influence of alcohol or drugs. Recent data has shown that the aboriginal adolescents who indulge
in binge drinking are more likely to engage in risky behavior, such as keeping a large number of
sexual partners and inconsistent use of sexual protection. 25% of the females who had been
treated for substance abuse have reported pregnancies (Wand et al., 2016). A significant amount
of hospitalizations and do tor’s visits are attributable to illicit use of drugs and alcohol. As per

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the report in 2018, 78666, emergency rooms visits by the adolescents in Australia have been
found due to the illicit use of drugs and alcohol. Some of the most common drugs used in
Australia are Cocaine, marijuana, methamphetamine (Wand et al., 2016). Higher rates of
marijuana has been associated with increasing number of school dropouts. As per the findings,
adolescents are more susceptible to the chronic effects of marijuana on the cognition of the
adolescent population.
Some of the common psychiatric disorders associated with the use of alcohol are
depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder. More cases of suicide attempt has also found to be
associated with the illicit use of drugs (Kennedy et al., 2015). ADHD among the adolescents has
been found to be associated with substance abuse. As it has been already stated, that adolescents
aboriginals who consume alcohol or drugs are often associated with antisocial behavior and risky
behavior such as unprotected sex, increasing the transmittance of sexually transmitted disease.
An elevated risk of HIV has been found among the Aboriginal and the Torres Strait Islander
adolescents, this is due to the illicit use of injectable drug use among the adolescent population.
Again according to the study by Webster (2012) there had been an elevated rate of prescription
drug use among the Australian aboriginal adolescent Individuals.
The reason behind the current pattern of substance abuse among the aboriginal and the
Torres Strait Islanders are complex. Many scientist are of the opinion that alcohol and drug abuse
are consequences of the effects of dispossession and colonization and the separation from the
cultural practices (Bryant et al., 2016). However, most of the literary sources have focused on the
impact of the contemporary realities of poor living standards, unemployment, family conflict and
welfare dependence, lack of boredom. Racism and discrimination in the field of health care,
education and unemployment have also been identified as some of the factors for alcoholism and