Report on Substance Misuse: Skills, Values, Ethics, and Practice

This report provides a comprehensive overview of substance misuse, focusing on the roles, skills, and ethical considerations for practitioners in this field. It identifies the different types of practitioners involved, including social workers, nurse practitioners, mental health practitioners, and peer mentors, and outlines the specific skill sets they need, such as people skills, counseling skills, and specialist substance use knowledge. The report also emphasizes the values that underpin practice, such as social justice and professional integrity, and details the ethical practices that must be followed, including informed consent, client confidentiality, and access to evidence-based interventions. The author references several key studies to support the information presented. This report provides a valuable resource for understanding the complexities of substance misuse treatment and the essential elements for effective and ethical practice.

Running head: SUBSTANCE MISUSE
SUBSTANCE MISUSE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note:

SUBSTANCE MISUSE1
What types of practitioner will be based within the service?
Substance Misuse Social Worker: to work with family-related issues and liaise with other
relevant professionals—The social workers working in the objective of reducing the substance
abuse targets the addicted population and helps them in the process of rehabilitation (Forrester,
Westlake, and Glynn 2012.)
Nurse Practitioners: administer relevant vaccinations—The nurses will help the seriously
addicted patients in recovering by administering medications at required intervals.
Mental health practitioners: work with cases of dual diagnosis—The people who have
developed mental disturbances and psychological depressive problems due to prolonged
exposure of substance abuse will be treated by them.
Peer mentors: usually volunteers; ex-users; experts by experience— The patients who
successfully recovered from previous substance abuse cases can successfully advice and help the
present addicts to recover.
What skill set will the employees need?
People skills: the ability to relate to others; patience; empathy; active listening— It is very
necessary for the individuals engaged in treating people with history of substance abuse to be
patient and empathetic. To understand the human needs of the patients and empathise with their
problems.
Counselling/therapeutic skills – Motivational Interviewing (MI), Solution Focussed Therapy
(SFT), Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)—Motivational Interviewing will help the patients
to come back to their normal lifestyle, Solution Focused Therapy will help them to solve the

SUBSTANCE MISUSE2
problem of addiction, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy will induce behaviours that will
productively help the patients in a constructive life.
Specialist substance use skills and knowledge—There are experts who understand the issue of
substance abuse in an efficient way. They can detect the problems of substance abuse and induce
treatment efficiently in order to rehabilitate the patients (Straussner 2013).
Specialist mental health practice skills—The patients with substance abuse history show
depressive syndromes, concentration problems, anxiety, fear, anger and other mental
abnormalities which needs to be handled in a specialised way (Rowe 2012).
What values will underpin practice?
Social Justice
 Equality must be practiced for people from all back grounds.
 People from diverse culture must be respected and valued.
 All the treatment procedures that may challenge the personal integrity of the patient must
be removed.
Professional integrity
 The doctors and the volunteers who are in the service must be loyal and dedicated.
 Professionalism is very important and the experts should not interfere in the life of the
patients.
 When the experts take responsibility of a patient they become accountable to that person,
that accountability should be maintained so that optimum results in treatment can be
achieved.

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What ethical practice will be followed
Informed consent- The patients must be informed in details about the possible treatment options
and their implications. If there are any possibility of any side effects, it must be disclosed to the
patients. The patient must express their consent following which the treatment should be
initiated.
Client confidentiality- The victims of substance abuse faces social stigmas and the society is
prejudiced against them at large. The society must be sensitised so that empathy is shown against
the victims. However complete confidentiality must be maintained for the patients under
treatment. Their medical information should also be maintained secretive and not disclosed to
any third party.
Access to evidence based interventions- The patients must not be ignorant about what are the
effects and results of the medical intervention that is applied on them. The treatment should be
result oriented and the victims must practically understand the effects of the intervention in their
life.

SUBSTANCE MISUSE4
References:
Forrester, D., Westlake, D. and Glynn, G., 2012. Parental resistance and social worker skills:
Towards a theory of motivational social work. Child & Family Social Work, 17(2), pp.118-129.
Rowe, C.L., 2012. Family therapy for drug abuse: Review and updates 2003–2010. Journal of
marital and family therapy, 38(1), pp.59-81.
Straussner, S.L.A. ed., 2013. Clinical work with substance-abusing clients. Guilford
Publications.