Substance Abuse Intervention for Family and Children

Running head: SUBSTANCE ABUSE INTERVENTION
Substance Abuse Intervention for Family and Children
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1SUBSTANCE ABUSE INTERVENTION
Substance Abuse Intervention for Family and Children
Section I
Definition and Description of issue
Substance abuse in the family leads to huge family conflicts and create dysfunctional
family behavioral patterns. This create a mental effect on the children and the overall family
value system gets destroyed with violence and a toxic environment which is harmful for the
child development. According to (Reiter, 2014) the family as a whole a big part in shaping as
well as intervening with the substance abuse risking the protection and resilience of the
children in the family. The person who is found to abusing the substance is termed as
identified patient in the family. The family system in which the person is the substance
misuse victims affect not only the child and the spouse with whom the person being married
is living but also to others like spouse’s family, neighbors and other community members.
This disrupts the family relationships. Most of the substance misuse victims are found to be
married and suffering work depression, family burden, financial burden and psychological
stress. The paper deals with the discussion of culturally adapted intervention of family and
children relationships in the terms of the problem faced by them for having substance abuse
of a family member. The area of problem which are highly experienced by children and
families is the substance abuse which can be from the family member –father, mother or any
close family member impacting the healthy relationship bond among the family members.
Prevalence of the issue
As per Mattoo et.al, (2013) in paper “Family burden with substance dependence: a
study from India”; most of the families of alcoholics having the spouses as caregivers being
exposed to increased risk of stressful life occurrence and psychiatric disorders. The substance

2SUBSTANCE ABUSE INTERVENTION
abuse in the family arise due to the financial burden. This create a disruption in the family
leisure and interaction with effect on physical and mental health of others. The substance
abuse at a massive scale impacts the overall functioning of family values, activities and the
daily routine. In terms of geographical region, like India where the joint family is a big notion
of value of togetherness; the substance abuse conditions among the males are prevalent.
While in terms of income group, the substance abuse is seen more in lower income groups
where the financial burden and the domestic violence rate increases.
According to (Naidoo, 2019) in the study conducted “Family functioning in families
affected by substance abuse” , the poor family relationships along with the poor
communication occurring between the parents and children has been seen to contribute
towards the problem of adolescent drug behavior at an increased rate. The rate of substance
abuse has seen an upward trend with the primary level of school children who are habituated
in experimenting with all forms of harmful substances in the drug abuse like Marijuana,
Nyaope a certain type of heroin and alcohol. All these have an effect on the various aspects of
behavior and value systems of family functioning. In the terms of South Africa, the drug
usage among the most of the individuals has been limited to drugs like opiates, sedative and
cocaine which are form of illegal drugs. These types’ drugs can be found in way of simulants
and the hallucinogens to inject in the physical body. Certain family dimensions have been
considered to be affecting the physical as well as emotional health of family members staying
with the victim of substance abuse. In the perspective of South Africa, the culture in family is
an important aspect which rules the relationships of social classes. The elders in the family
act as the by default therapists who advise and suggest the solutions for the problems of abuse
and family violence situations.

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Effects of the issue
As per Suomi et.al, (2013) in the paper “Problem gambling and family violence:
family member reports of prevalence, family impacts and family coping”, most of the family
violence gets created by the problem of gambling. In this gambling, the parent or the head of
the family is driven by alcohol abuse where most of the time, the females are the victims of
domestic violence. This creates the family dysfunction and the conflict in the house and
affects the mental health of the children in the family. The gambling as a by-product of the
substance misuse promotes the child abuse as well as child violence in the family.
According to (Taplin, Saddichha & Krausz, 2014), in the paper “Family history of
alcohol and drug abuse, childhood trauma, and age of first drug injection”; the occurrence of
substance abuse disorder is related as per multiple studies due to history of past childhood
abuse. The childhood trauma makes the person seek substance misuse. The reports state that
more than 80% of the children face mental and physical negligence in the family where one
of the member is the victim of substance abuse. They lack their physical needs of getting
appropriate clothes, food and shelter. The increased stake of domestic violence leads to
nutritional negligence by parents in the family. This give rise to conflict between child and
parent, the improper allocation of family funds, harmful behavior patterns in family. The
child learns from the adults by seeing their behavior and taking them as role models, thus
performing the same acts when they will grow up. The family history of substance use states
that the child gets mentally affected from the dysfunctional abusive patterns in the family
environment cycle which harm their development. The family environment where the father
or mother being the primary substance misuse victims affect the children more than the uncle
or aunt being distant relatives as victims. The joint families where a past history of
grandfather or grandmother being resorted to substance misuse can create role model conflict