Substance Abuse and Professional Counseling

This article discusses substance abuse and professional counseling, including the problem of substance abuse, a program for consultation for schools, colleges, agencies, and industries, and the use of peer counseling in the prevention and treatment of substance abuse. The article also includes a rationale for a comprehensive guidance program and a plan for evaluating the program using action research procedures.

Running head: SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING

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SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING
SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND PROFESSIONAL COUNSELING
Name of student:
Name of university:
Author note:

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Program for consultation with school staff and/or parents, industry/agency personnel to
implement primary prevention principles designed to address substance abuse.
Description of the goals you would have for your intervention and the procedures you
would use, along with a rationale and a description of how you would evaluate your
intervention, using action research procedures
Overview of the problem of substance abuse: Establishing the context
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), substance abuse has been
described as the exposure to hazardous and harmful psychoactive substances that may include
illicit usage of drugs or alcohol. These psychoactive components in the substance can lead to
dependence syndrome and a cluster of cognitive, behavioral and physiological phenomena
that develops after the continuous use of drugs. This is characterized by a deep desire to
consume the drug, finding it difficult to control the drug and continuing the use of these
psychoactive substances despite of being aware of the harmful consequences (Foxx, Baker &
Gerler, 2017). It can further lead to a state of physical withdrawal and rendering highest
priority to drug usage instead of other activities. Although 1 in 3 people are found to have
issues with substance abuse like drug and alcohol, more than 90 per cent of the victims of
substance abuse do not fit the media stereotype of people with issues of substance abuse. It
has been found that one in five household in Australia face alcohol abuse and one in five 16
and 17 year old are exposed to binge drinking in a given week. More than 500, 000 children
are living at the risk of exposure to adult drinking that has led to harmful effects for the
generation (Corey, 2017). The statistics on cannabis is even more disturbing as it has been
found that one in seven secondary school students are found to be using drugs. The problem
has escalated to its crux and become a social epidemic considering that the massive level of
drinking and drug abuse by the Australian population. It has been normalized and considered
as rite of passage to adulthood thereby encouraging the younger generation to become a slave

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to substance abuse as a means of emulating the adults. A report titled Supporting Families of
Young People with Problematic Drug Use released by the federal government ensued that the
government’s chief advisory body on the policy of drug has spoke about the disturbing
number of children who have turned out binge-drinkers and cannabis consumers in Australia.
The study further found that the Australian children have lived with the problem of drug
abuse and alcohol abuse that have jeopardized their lives. This includes 230, 000 children
who live in the households that have exposure to risk to turn out to be binge drinkers and
there are more than 40, 0000 people who live in the house where the adult population are
addicted to cannabis (Corey, 2017).
The reexamination of the research have found that the number is actually double as
there are 451,000 children who are exposed to binge drinking and there are 70, 000 people
who live with the problem of cannabis abuse on a daily basis. There are 12 to 17 year old and
one in 10 (16,800) people who are victims of binge drinking. It has been reported that 16 year
old and one in five (54, 116) are exposed to cannabis abuse. This is same for the 17 year olds
(59, 176). In case of the indigenous population in Australia the alcohol use is 27 per cent and
12 per cent of the indigenous population are victims of alcohol abuse. It was fund that
approximately 13 per cent of the younger drinking population has reported that they resort to
drinking and driving. It was found that 16 per cent of the population goes to work under the
influence of alcohol. This ever-increasing number of the younger population of younger
drinkers and drug abuse victims have become a cause of concern for the Australian
government as they are exerting enormous pressure of the economy of Australia and at the
same time on the financial and personal harmony of the families. Nicola Roxon, the health
minister of the country contended that he is committed to developing strategies that would
effectively combat the problem (Kearney, 2013).

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Program for consultation for schools, colleges, agencies and industries (goals, strategies
and evaluation of the strategies)
Some of the suggestions that have emerged in this light are that parents need to keep
their children away from alcohol and monitor the child. This can be understood as the rimary
intervention to substance abuse. Parents need to delay the onset of alcohol abuse in the
younger generation as long as possible with the objective of curtailing the adverse effects
posed due to alcohol consumption for the body of the adolescent and the brain development
and to minimize the probability of the high-risk posed due to alcohol abuse in the adulthood.
In case parents are unwilling or under confident about dealing with the issue of alcohol they
need to approach professional counseling service before it takes the shape of a social
epidemic. Action design research is concerned with designing a research that would seek
intervention in responding to a given problem in a systematic manner with the aim of
bringing praxis. The conclusions regarding effective counseling strategies related to the
substance abuse victims are limited in the specialty of counseling (Schmidt, 2014). This has
led to the traditional approach has led to the traditional approach to drug abuse was not
suitable to respond to the epidemic of substance abuse. The traditional intervention to the
treatment of substance abuse has incurred short-term benefits instead of reaping in long-term
results. These short-term results are stress management, aversion therapy, social skills
training and solution-focused brief therapy. It is found that the counselors regardless of the
settings are influential as harbingers of change. Successful intervention with the client
through the incorporation of the appropriate techniques and requisite skills needs to be
invested. Therapeutic techniques are important in addressing the concern of the client and the
various stakeholders associated with the client. Counseling has been understood as a process
that has turned out to be beneficial for the clients. The aim would be develop rapport with the
client in addition to maintaining the professional demeanor. Counseling models can be

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effective in addition to their counseling outcome. Some of these counseling outcomes are
experiential, behavioral, dynamic and cognitive. The counseling practice include the
counselor resorting to the common practices. Therefore, the objective would be to develop a
counseling plan that would be trustworthy, open, premised on collaborative relationship,
where there is the facilitation of the client cognitive learning through reframing, there is the
collection of feedback, insightful strategy and assisting the client in transforming the
behavior through the change in regulation, testing of reality and the successful experiences
(McMahon & Watson, 2015).There needs to be emphasis on the conversations of the life
problems by addressing the problems directly to the clients.
Another therapeutic skill in this context would be providing structure to the
counselor-client relationship. There would be various stages incorporated in this counseling
plan with the objective of successful intervention and counseling perspective depending on
the types of clients and in context to the different client-counselor relationship (McMahon &
Watson, 2015). The counselor would be counseling clients with a thrust on the person and not
the substance. Therefore, there should be person-centered approach. The counselor will
incorporate additional knowledge and skills that would relate to their ability to utilize the
standards of assessment. There needs to be a familial and the social environment assessment
that would identify the degree and veracity to utilize the support system of the client. There
would be identification of the individual needs of the client and thereby determine the quality
of counseling and concomitant treatment intervention strategies that are connected to the
assessment and diagnostic skills. There would be referral options decided by the needs of the
client and collaboratively agreed upon strategies by the counselor and the client (Wittmer &
Clark, 2007). There would be short-term in-patient care that is intended to last for three to
seven days for the withdrawal from substance abuse or the intensive and the outpatient
programs that would last for eight to twelve weeks. In this context, the client would need to

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maintain the vocational and family way house and provision of the moderately structured and
supportive residential treatment that would last for three to six months, in this case living
within the setting would become important in success of the treatment plan. Another option
would be Synanon in which the clients will have to remain the first one aimed for two years
and there would be two kinds of out-patient alcoholism treatment programs. one would be
drug free clinics that would provide services that would last for four to six months and the
second one is the methadone or the opiate clinics in which the client will be attended by
medical referral for two to five years (Foxx, Baker & Gerler, 2017). In this case, the emphasis
would e on group treatments that would be the predominant mode of therapy in which the
individual and the client would be viewed as an adjunct
Rationale for a comprehensive guidance program and describe the goals and activities
you would use to accomplish the goals of peer counseling. Plan for evaluating your
program using action research procedures
Peer counseling method in the prevention and treatment of substance abuse
As has been discussed until now, substance abuse extreme concern on the individuals
of the society due to the problematic behaviour incurred due to substance abuse. The peer
counseling emerged during the period of the 1970s as a response to the increasing threat
posed by the effects of substance abuse (Gysbers & Henderson,2014). The thrust of peer
counseling method is to emphasize on the effectiveness of the peer counselor to solve the
problems and enforce sustainable and effective coping skills to understand the feelings about
the emotion that would lead to the situation being enhanced rather than being discarded.
Another feature of the peer group counseling method is that high school students can learn
from their own experiences as well as the experiences of their peers. The peer counseling

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approach firmly believes in the agency and the potential of the students to resolve their
conflicts and in the long-term have the ability resolve their problems (Kearney, 2013). These
features of the peer group counseling method makes it effective in dealing with the high
incidence of substance abuse among the school children and college students in Australia. In
the given context, peer counseling would be taught to the students and encourage them to
engage in the psychology problem solving. Two mental health practitioners that would adopt
nine-week sequences of problem solving would develop the curriculum.
Firstly, it would be taught that in a model class in the presence of the teachers. The
curriculum would commence with the identification of the problem followed by the
exploration of the alternative solutions and finally through the selection of the solution and
implementation of the same. Finally, there would be the evaluation regarding the
effectiveness of the resolved issue (Wilson, 2014).In addition, there would be examination of
the impact of emotions in each of the stage. The students would be taught group process
skills where they would be divided into a group and encouraged to identify the problem.
Secondly, the students would have to identify the solution of the problem that is to be
followed by the application of the solution to the problem in this nine-week course. The
second component of the program would be that students in the class should have a client
whom they have counseled at the outset of the fifth week. The program would e evaluated
trough distribution of the feedback forms and interaction with the parents of the clients to
assess the effectiveness of the program and propose for future modifications to seek the best
outcome.

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References
Corey, G. (2017). Student manual for theory and practice of counseling and
psychotherapy (10th ed.). Pacific Grove CA: Brooks/Cole.
Corey, G. (2017). Theory and practice of counseling and psychotherapy (10th ed.). Pacific
Grove CA: Brooks/Cole.
Foxx, S., Baker, S., & Gerler, E. (2017). School Counseling in the 21st Century. NY:
Routledge.
Gysbers, N. & Henderson, P. (2014). Developing and managing your school guidance
program (5th ed.). Alexandria, VA: ACA.
Kearney, C. A. (2013). Casebook in child behavior disorders (5th ed.). Melbourne.
Wadsworth/Cenage.
McMahon, M., & Patton, W. (2nd ed.). (2015). Ideas for career practitioners: Celebrating
excellence in career practice. Brisbane, Australia: Australian Academic
Press.
McMahon, M., & Watson, M. (2015). Career Assessment: Qualitative approaches.
Rotterdam, The Netherlands: Sense
McMahon, M. (Ed.). (2017). Career counselling: Constructivist approaches (2nd ed.).
Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge.
Schmidt, J. (2014). Counselling in schools: Essential services and comprehensiveprograms
(6th ed). Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

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Wilson, Rachal Zara (2014). Neuroscience for Counsellors. Jessica Kingsley Publishers:
London.
Wittmer, J. & Clark, M. (Eds., 2007). Managing your school counselling program: K12