What is the relationship between mental health and behavior, and how may psychological health treatment help youngsters avoid drug usage and addiction?
Review of Literature
M. Olfson, B. G. Druss, and S. C. Marcus (2015). Trends in child and adolescent mental health care. 2029-2038 in the New England Journal of Medicine, 372(21).
According to Olfson, Druss, and Marcus (2015), teenage outpatient visits more than doubled between 2008 and 2010, owing to an increase in the number of youths in need of mental health treatment. Teenagers' psychological impairment is on the rise, necessitating intervention efforts to prevent these unfavorable results. Drug abuse among the youth is also on the rise and it is affecting the quality of lives of the teens such that counseling services are on demand to minimize these consequences and enhance the lives of teenagers. This source will assist in correctly understanding the trends and emerging issues related to mental health of teenagers and their response to such interventions.
Patnode, C. D., O'Connor, E., Rowland, M., Burda, B. U., Perdue, L. A., & Whitlock, E. P. (2014). Primary Care Behavioral Interventions to Prevent or Reduce Illicit Drug Use and Nonmedical Pharmaceutical Use in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Evidence Review for the US Preventive Services Task ForceInterventions to Prevent or Reduce Drug Use in Children and Adolescents. Annals of internal medicine, 160(9), 612-620.
The use of drugs among the teenagers results in serious social and health consequences. Even the infrequent usage of the drugs has the potential of increasing to frequent usage thus inhibiting the ability of the youths to live a quality life. Counselling is presented as a significant non-medical intervention to reduce the use of illicit drugs among the youth coupled with other therapies also.
This source will be instrumental in providing information that reveals how intervention measures could be used to prevent drug abuse among teenagers such that issues like impairment stages and addiction are averted. Also, how risk factors lead to increased prevalence of drug abuse among the adolescents.
Moyer, V. A. (2013). Screening and behavioral counseling interventions in primary care to reduce alcohol misuse: US preventive services task force recommendation statement. Annals of Internal Medicine, 159(3), 210-218.
The prevalence of alcohol use among the teenagers in the US has a close association with the abuse of illicit drugs. Therefore, any intervention aimed at preventing alcohol misuse will have positive outcomes in a reduction in the use of drug use. This paper will shed more light on how behavioral counseling and screening assist in the prevention of alcohol misuse. Screening is the basis of understanding alcohol use and thus assist in identification of the number of counseling sessions and the nature of meetings. For instance, all those who test negative for alcohol could undergo a group metal counseling of a few sessions while those impaired by alcohol use could have several appointments and individualized sessions.
Moyer, V. A. (2014). Primary care behavioral interventions to reduce illicit drug and nonmedical pharmaceutical use in children and adolescents: US preventive services task force recommendation statement interventions to reduce drug use in children and adolescents. Annals of internal medicine, 160(9), 634-639.
Moyer (2014) asserts that the provision of necessary information related to the reality about drugs and their effects through various counseling interventions promote awareness among the youth and thus responsible behavior. This source will provide more details on how screening and subsequent counseling prevent those who have not used drugs from starting and those already in drugs various management strategies. The screening process offers a basis for organizing the counseling sessions. This intervention of counseling has prevented adolescents from starting drug use through acquired information that leads to better decision making.
Li, L., Zhu, S., Tse, N., Tse, S., & Wong, P. (2016). The effectiveness of motivational interviewing to reduce illicit drug use in adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Addiction, 111(5), 795-805.
Motivation interviewing is a counseling approach that has been suggested by some clinical psychologists Miller and Rollnick that is client-centered and goal oriented aimed at helping the patient resolve ambivalence and explore. These clinical psychologists also indicated that it would assist in scenarios of addiction like heavy drinking. However, Li et al. (2016) argue that motivational interviewing has no bearing on behavior change among teenage addicts. Motivational interviewing only places a desire for change among the adolescences but the actual change in behavior does not occur. This source will be handy in indicating that not all counseling approaches yield the expected benefits in changing behavior among teenagers. Also, it will offer the underlying reason for such conclusions.
Baumeister, S. E., Gelberg, L., Leake, B. D., Yacenda-Murphy, J., Vahidi, M., & Andersen, R. M. (2014). Effect of a primary care-based brief intervention trial among risky drug users on the health-related quality of life. Drug and alcohol dependence, 142, 254-261.
This paper will assist in helping identify the long-term goal of helping a drug addict that is improved quality of life in a full scope. The brief intervention interactions with patients reveal that it improved the physical domain of the patients such that they gained control over their behavior. Notably, this brief session provided the most significant positive impact on non-dependent patients in the USA. Thus, the journal article will give more information on how a short session with a psychologist and subsequent follow-up using the telephone assist in addressing health challenges and behavior change associated with drug use.
Field, C. A., Klimas, J., Barry, J., Bury, G., Keenan, E., Smyth, B. P., & Cullen, W. (2013). Problem alcohol use among problem drug users in primary care: a qualitative study of what patients think about screening and treatment. BMC family practice, 14(1), 98.
Field et al. (2013) suggest that mental health interventions promote good behavior through assisting the patients to reduce drug use. However, this intervention does not occur in isolation but is preceded by drug screening and a brief intervention and other management strategies until the patient has fully recovered. The primary care is the most important as it can break or establish a strong relationship between the counselor and the patient such that the patient responds well and takes considerably a short time to recover. The journal provides methadone maintenance and clinical guidelines that assist the mental health practitioners to achieve the best out of the working relationship with patients.
Markham, W. A., Markham, W. A., Bonell, C., Bonell, C., Fletcher, A., Fletcher, A., & Aveyard, P. (2017). How can schools help to reduce the harm associated with teenage substance use? Development of a theoretically driven whole-school approach. Drugs and Alcohol Today, 17(1), 1-11.
Since most teenagers in the USA are school-going, schools have a role to play to ensure students receive mental counseling related to drug use. Markham et al. (2017) claim that schools could attain such improved behavior and reduce the use of alcohol and drug use through improved connectedness within the school fraternity. In providing mental health counseling opportunities in schools, students will develop autonomy that is impactful in the long term and could avert adverse effects of drug use. The journal article will assist in the research by providing a comprehensive outline of how schools could promote behavioral change by allowing mental health practitioners.
Andersson, C., Öjehagen, A., Olsson, M. O., Brådvik, L., & Håkansson, A. (2017). Interactive voice response with feedback intervention in the outpatient treatment of substance use problems in adolescents and young adults: a randomized controlled trial. International journal of behavioral medicine, 24(5), 789-797.
This journal elaborates further that personalized feedback in mental counseling sessions produces a substantial change and addresses disorders related to illicit drug use among adolescents and young adults. The interactive voice response is a system that is instrumental in examining anxiety, depression stress, and drug use. The repeated randomized trial assists the counselor in determining the frequency of the sessions and the length of the counseling. The method of intervention groups supports the patients to deal with stress such that the drug use levels also go down significantly. In this journal, it will be evident how addressing other disorders associated with drug use reduces its prevalence among teenagers.
Dunne, T., Bishop, L., Avery, S., & Darcy, S. (2017). A review of effective youth engagement strategies for mental health and substance use interventions. Journal of Adolescent Health.
This journal will provide the background information related to drug abuse and how most drug addicts start using drugs at teenage, and if the intervention approaches do not address the challenge, there is a probability of impairment. Additionally, Dunne et al. (2017) explain that although the mental counseling sessions are effective interventions, most of the youths drop out of the intervention plan. Thus, the need to utilize various approaches and strategies to psychological counseling for a long-term benefit.
Rationale of the Study
Understanding whether mental health counseling assists in behavior change associated with drug abuse is important since the information will help schools, parents, humanitarian organizations, and the society at large. Many teenagers are affected by drug abuse, and in the United States, drug abuse is on the increase, and thus there is a need to find intervention strategies to avert the negative consequences. This problem affects the health of the adolescents, their academic performance, and their interpersonal relationships such that their ability to make rational decisions and live quality lives is inhibited. The parents are affected emotionally and monetarily, as well as the schools since dealing with students who take drugs is not easy. The research can be answered within the time and financial constraints in my reach.
Methodology/Measures
The best approach to addressing my research question is using interviews and also utilizing available data since other methods may not be feasible in this study. Interviewing school-going adolescents and schools also since there is available data on students' behavior and intervention methods used and whether they have been successful or not. The use of questionnaires and sampling the students is valid and reliable.
Variables
The variables in play are: Behavioral change associated with reduced illicit drug use and accompanying negative behaviors and also the availability and utilization of mental health counseling intervention.
Related questions include exploring these variables:
How does the mental behavior impact on the emotions of the patients?
What mental counseling therapies are available to assist the patients in different age groups and social status?
How prevalent is a mental health problem in this area based on the number of patients who seek assistance?
What are the impacts of an unattended mental health problem on an individual's psychosocial well-being?
Should counseling therapy be combined with other forms of therapy for optimum outcomes?
What obstacles do patients with mental problems experience?
How effective is mental counseling therapy? To what extent is the patient likely to recover fully?
What age group is in the highest need of mental counseling services?
What are the predisposing factors attributable to mental health problems and what factors determine whether a patient seeks professional help or not?
Questionnaires
What kind of drugs do you think are mostly abused by adolescents?
Have you ever used drugs yourself?
What are the interventions used in your school when a student is known to use drugs?
Are there counseling sessions in your school?
If you used drugs, would you seek help from a counseling center in your neighborhood? Why or why not?
What do you think affects the effectiveness of counseling sessions?
How effective are mental counseling sessions in behavior change among drug-using students?
Cover letter
I am an apprentice student conducting research related to the impact of mental health counseling among illicit teenage drug users.
Your participation in this questionnaire will involve providing the most truthful information to the best of your knowledge. Your identity will not be used, and it is not required for you to write your name on the paper.
The results of this research study will assist in understanding the impact of counseling sessions and also be used to offer recommendations to increase effectiveness to reduce this social problem.
If you have any inquiries associated with this research, please feel free to contact me through this email.
Thank you for your consideration,
Sincerely
References
Andersson, C., Öjehagen, A., Olsson, M. O., Brådvik, L., & Håkansson, A. (2017). Interactive voice response with feedback intervention in the outpatient treatment of substance use problems in adolescents and young adults: a randomized controlled trial. International journal of behavioral medicine, 24(5), 789-797.
Baumeister, S. E., Gelberg, L., Leake, B. D., Yacenda-Murphy, J., Vahidi, M., & Andersen, R. M. (2014). Effect of a primary care based brief intervention trial among risky drug users on health-related quality of life. Drug and alcohol dependence, 142, 254-261.
Dunne, T., Bishop, L., Avery, S., & Darcy, S. (2017). A review of effective youth engagement strategies for mental health and substance use interventions. Journal of Adolescent Health.
Field, C. A., Klimas, J., Barry, J., Bury, G., Keenan, E., Smyth, B. P., & Cullen, W. (2013). Problem alcohol use among problem drug users in primary care: a qualitative study of what patients think about screening and treatment. BMC family practice, 14(1), 98.
Li, L., Zhu, S., Tse, N., Tse, S., & Wong, P. (2016). Effectiveness of motivational interviewing to reduce illicit drug use in adolescents: a systematic review and meta‐analysis. Addiction, 111(5), 795-805
Markham, W. A., Markham, W. A., Bonell, C., Bonell, C., Fletcher, A., Fletcher, A., … & Aveyard, P. (2017). How can schools help to reduce the harm associated with teenage substance use? Development of a theoretically driven whole-school approach. Drugs and Alcohol Today, 17(1), 1-11.
Moyer, V. A. (2014). Primary care behavioral interventions to reduce illicit drug and nonmedical pharmaceutical use in children and adolescents: US preventive services task force recommendation statement interventions to reduce drug use in children and adolescents. Annals of internal medicine, 160(9), 634-639.
Moyer, V. A. (2013). Screening and behavioral counseling interventions in primary care to reduce alcohol misuse: US preventive services task force recommendation statement. Annals of Internal Medicine, 159(3), 210-218.
Olfson, M., Druss, B. G., & Marcus, S. C. (2015). Trends in mental health care among children and adolescents. New England Journal of Medicine, 372(21), 2029-2038.
Patnode, C. D., O’Connor, E., Rowland, M., Burda, B. U., Perdue, L. A., & Whitlock, E. P. (2014). Primary Care Behavioral Interventions to Prevent or Reduce Illicit Drug Use and Nonmedical Pharmaceutical Use in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Evidence Review for the US Preventive Services Task ForceInterventions to Prevent or Reduce Drug Use in Children and Adolescents. Annals of internal medicine, 160(9), 612-620.
