Problems of Substance Abuse and Alcohol Misuse

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PROBLEMS OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND ALCOHOL MISUSE
By ( )
Class (Course)
Professor (Tutor)
School (University)
City and State
The Date

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Introduction
This essay aims to carry out an assessment on health promotion to help Jayne who is a 22-year-
old student at his final year of studies at University and has health problems associated with
substance abuse. The essay will discuss the efficient assessment tool that can be effective in
planning care for Jayne. Several tools can be used in planning for health promotion of a patient
but depend on health issue affecting the client. According to the health condition of Jayne, I am
going to focus on dual diagnosis and evaluate the underpinnings of health promotion and the
concept of recovery. In the nursing care process, the first step that is involved in the nursing
assessment which is used to gather information concerning the client’s psychological, spiritual,
physiological and sociological requirements to evaluate a care plan.
According to the Tenth International Classification of Disease (ICD-10), a victim with health
issues related to the mental disorders as in this case of Jane requires much attention by observing
the patients behavior and signs related to his or her description of the issues. In relation to the
National Institute of health and Care guidelines in the year 2016, it demonstrated that
multidisciplinary and a comprehended assessment has to be provided to the persons with
psychological problems due to often misuse of drugs. The patient’s assessment involves personal
history, sexual and physical health, social, economic, mental and family status (Thomas et al,
2016).
The case scenario of shows that have been seen by a nurse concerning the Urinary Tract
Infection (UTI), who is required to examine his physical health. The assessment involves taking
key records on crucial signs such as respiration rate, pulse rate, blood pressure and temperature
to investigate the possibility of any diseases and progress towards recovery. The urinary tract
examinations are carried out to detect any illness like diabetes, UTI or kidney disease. Questions

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also are used to gather information from Jayne’s family history of physical and psychological
health issues (Bee et al, 2015).
Dual diagnosis is a terminology used to describe people who have been having mental health
problems due to substance abuse for a long time. Jayne’s condition appears to be having a dual
diagnosis. Jayne could have exposed to psychosis from substance abuse. However, the
professional nurse should address these issues separately for ethical considerations. This is to
enable the practitioner to determine the appropriate treatment for both side effects the substance
misuse and psychosis (Bee et al, 2015).
Jayne explained that he has been using cannabis that resulted in her hearing voices over the past
years. It is recommendable for a nurse to culturally sensitive and be avoid judgmental decisions
because cannabis has been categorized with cultural beliefs for various purposes such as
religious, medicinal and healing. Moreover, the nurse has to find out the reason why Jayne is
commencing to smoking cannabis, how often and the amount he was taking. The urine screening
test has to be done to investigate the sort of drugs he had been misusing (Prokofieva, Koukia,
and Dikeos, 2016).
The Psychiatrist assessment-symptom scale could be used to assess Jayne’s hearing voices as it
measures psychotic symptoms, how serious the voices are and how they affect Jayne’s daily
activities. The tool of alcohol, smoking, and substance involvement screening test (ASSIST) was
developed to test psychoactive drugs used and their effect on the victim. The instrument is used
by the healthcare professional at the first encounter with the client to measure substance use and
alcohol dependency. It enables the health practitioners to determine the challenges caused by
substance misuse and alcohol thus recommending the correct intervention of relapse prevention
and encourage abstinence (van der Velden, 2015).