PSYC 3011 Week 1 – Assignment: Examine Personal Beliefs Related to Substance Abuse 

PSYC 3011 Week 1 – Assignment: Examine Personal Beliefs Related to Substance Abuse 

Sample Answer for PSYC 3011 Week 1 – Assignment: Examine Personal Beliefs Related to Substance Abuse Included

PSYC 3011 Week 1 – Assignment Examine Personal Beliefs Related to Substance Abuse

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: PSYC 3011 Week 1 – Assignment: Examine Personal Beliefs Related to Substance Abuse 

Title: PSYC 3011 Week 1 – Assignment: Examine Personal Beliefs Related to Substance Abuse 

Substance abuse is a crucial public health problem that disproportionately affects American population in the modern world. Substance abuse affects the population’s health, wellbeing, and productivity. Nurses and other healthcare providers play crucial roles in treating and implementing evidence-based interventions to minimize the burden of substance abuse in their communities. The government collaborates with different public health stakeholders to ensure population empowerment to overcome the issue of substance abuse. Therefore, this blog examines different topics related to substance abuse and my view of the problem.

Substance Abuse Continuum

Substance abuse continuum is a term utilized to refer to the phases that individuals undergo from substance use to abuse. The continuum helps determine the individual’s use of drugs and the possible treatments that can be adopted to facilitate their recovery. Policy makers adopt the term to make informed decisions on issues such as harm minimization, public education, and developing policies on substance abuse and use. The stages of substance abuse continuum include non-use, experimental use, recreational use, regular, and dependent or compulsive use. Non-use stage is characterized by an individual making a decision not to use or take substances because of their associated health, cultural or personal reasons. An individual explores the use of substances with limited use in the experimental stage. There is the casual or social use of drugs in the recreational stage. There is the transition to weekly use of the drugs in the regular stage (Stanojlović & Davidson, 2021). Lastly, individuals compulsively use the drugs in the dependent stage where they suffer from the negative effects of the drugs.

I do not accept the concept of substance abuse continuum. Accordingly, a person can be using substances and fail to progress to the later stages in the continuum model. Factors within and outside individual control of substance abuse affect their progression in the continuum model. For example, life stressors such as loss of a loved one may predispose individuals to substance abuse. In some cases, these individuals may not follow the stages in the continuum model based on their experiences with a drug. In addition, the social structures within one’s setting influences their progression in the substance abuse continuum. For example, people brought up in a community characterized by increased abuse of drugs are likely to demonstrate behaviors aligning with the continuum model as compared to those raised in drug free families or environment (Paquette et al., 2022). Based on the above, it can be concluded that there are fundamental characteristics that separate substance use from substance addiction.

Cost of Substance Abuse

Substance abuse is associated with enormous costs to the government, communities, healthcare systems, communities, families, and

individuals. According to Peterson et al., (2021), deaths due to drug overdose in the USA has more than trilled over the last two decades. In 2019, 70000 deaths were reported due to drug overdose. These mortalities have significant implications to the country and community’s productivity. Substance abuse is associated with increased hospital visits and hospitalizations. Often, substance abusers suffer from the side and adverse effects of the abused drugs such as withdrawal symptoms and depressed central nervous and respiratory systems. For example, a study conducted in Pennsylvania by Liu et al., (2019) found that of 2853499 hospitalizations in primary and secondary hospitals, 1.5% of them were associated with opioid abuse. The predictors of opioid abuse included ethnicity, being female, and concurrent use of other substances by the population (Liu et al., 2019). Frequent hospital visits and hospitalizations for substance abusers is costly for them, their families, healthcare system, and state as a whole. For example, the United States government spent $1.021 billion in opioid epidemic in 2017, including $471 billion for opioid use disorder, and $550 billion for managing opioid overdose (Luo et al., 2021).

The cost of substance abuse is also high because of its high rate of relapse following treatment. According to Andersson et al., (2019), relapse to substance abuse is a highly prevalent problem among patients that undergo treatment for the disorder. Studies evaluated by the authors showed that the relapse rate in European nations range between 40 and 75% for heroin and other illicit drugs. The relapse often results in unending cycle of treatment and substance abuse, increasing substance abuse-related costs (Andersson et al., 2019).

Substance abuse costs are also high because of the increased need for the adoption of population-centered interventions by the government. Accordingly, the government continually supports programs such as those aiming at increasing the availability of naloxone to avert fatal opioid overdoses and preventable mortalities. Such programs are associated with high costs by the government, which could be used for other areas of development. In addition, the increasing rates of substance abuse heightens the government spending on prevention and treatment programs, hence, affecting socioeconomic growth of the country (Adams et al., 2022).

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Substance abuse is associated with other comorbid conditions. According to Serota et al., (2021), substance abuse such as injection of opioids is linked to diseases such as hepatitis C, HIV, and invasive bacterial infections of the skin, osteomyelitis, endocarditis, and septic arthritis. The risk of substance abusers developing mental health disorders such as depression is also high. Evidence shows that about 50% of people with mental disorders are substance abusers. Furthermore, 53% of drug abusers and 37% of alcohol abusers suffer from at least one mental illness, with 29% of people with mental illness being abusers of either alcohol or other drugs (Mohamed et al., 2020). Treating substance abuse and these associated comorbidities is a challenge to most patients and families, hence, the high cost of substance abuse. For example, Florence et al., (2021) found that the estimated cost of substance use disorders, their comorbidities and complications is about $1.02 trillion in the USA. Most of the economic burden is attributable to reduced quality of life for the affected populations and value of life lost due to substance abuse.

Perception of Substance Abuse Problem

The problem of substance abuse is underreported in the modern American society. First, the underreporting can be deduced from the substance abuse continuum model that shows that individuals undergo different stages for them to become substance dependent. Most of the statistics reported in studies rely on evidence obtained from hospital and population-based programs. The data is of people who seek help for their drug addiction problems. The statistics represent a small percentage of substance users in the population. For instance, a large percentage of the population are either in the early stages of substance abuse continuum such as the experimental use, recreational use, and regular use stages. Therefore, the data reported in the media and researchers represent an iceberg of the real picture of substance abuse and use in America.

The study by Palamar et al., (2021) is an example of a study that provides insights into the underreporting of substance abuse by media and studies. The research investigated the underreporting of drug abuse among the attendants of electronic dance parties. The researchers acknowledged that electronic dance music party are highly vulnerable to drug use. However, there is limited evidence on their exposure to drugs. The researchers found that the prevalence of drug use was high among the attendees with 43.8% of them testing positive for at least a drug. Those who tested positive never reported drug use. Furthermore, the research showed that the prevalence of cocaine use by the attendees was 51.1%, which increased by a factor of 1.6 when hair test results were added to self-report. The surprising part of the study was that most of the drug users were young adults aged 18-25 years, blacks and other mixed races, and those having a college degree (Palamar et al., 2021). The findings from this study support the assertion that substance abuse problem remains underreported by media and studies in the USA. Therefore, measures to obtain population-specific data should be adopted.

PSYC 3011 Week 1 – Assignment: Examine Personal Beliefs Related to Substance Abuse Conclusion

In summary, substance abuse is a crucial problem in the USA. Substance abuse is associated with high costs. The substance abuse continuum does not predict substance use and dependence for all the populations. The problem of substance abuse is underreported in the USA. Most of the statistics represent the populations that seek help for substance abuse problems. Population-specific data should be obtained to understand the true burden of substance abuse in the country.

 

 

PSYC 3011 Week 1 – Assignment: Examine Personal Beliefs Related to Substance Abuse  References

Adams, J. W., Savinkina, A., Fox, A., Behrends, C. N., Madushani, R. W. M. A., Wang, J., Chatterjee, A., Walley, A. Y., Barocas, J. A., & Linas, B. P. (2022). Modeling the cost-effectiveness and impact on fatal overdose and initiation of buprenorphine–naloxone treatment at syringe service programs. Addiction, 117(10), 2635–2648. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15883

Andersson, H. W., Wenaas, M., & Nordfjærn, T. (2019). Relapse after inpatient substance use treatment: A prospective cohort study among users of illicit substances. Addictive Behaviors, 90, 222–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.11.008

Florence, C., Luo, F., & Rice, K. (2021). The economic burden of opioid use disorder and fatal opioid overdose in the United States, 2017. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 218, 108350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2020.108350

Liu, S. J., Mair, C., Songer, T. J., Krans, E. E., Wahed, A., & Talbott, E. (2019). Opioid-related hospitalizations in Pennsylvania: A latent class analysis. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 202, 185–190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2019.05.009

Luo, F., Li, M., & Florence, C. (2021). State-Level Economic Costs of Opioid Use Disorder and Fatal Opioid Overdose—United States, 2017. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 70(15), 541–546. https://doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7015a1

Mohamed, I. I., Ahmad, H. E. K., Hassaan, S. H., & Hassan, S. M. (2020). Assessment of anxiety and depression among substance use disorder patients: A case-control study. Middle East Current Psychiatry, 27(1), 22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s43045-020-00029-w

Palamar, J. J., Salomone, A., & Keyes, K. M. (2021). Underreporting of drug use among electronic dance music party attendees. Clinical Toxicology, 59(3), 185–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/15563650.2020.1785488

Paquette, C. E., Daughters, S. B., & Witkiewitz, K. (2022). Expanding the continuum of substance use disorder treatment: Nonabstinence approaches. Clinical Psychology Review, 91, 102110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2021.102110

Peterson, C., Li, M., Xu, L., Mikosz, C. A., & Luo, F. (2021). Assessment of Annual Cost of Substance Use Disorder in US Hospitals. JAMA Network Open, 4(3), e210242. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2021.0242

Serota, D. P., Bartholomew, T. S., & Tookes, H. E. (2021). Evaluating Differences in Opioid and Stimulant Use-associated Infectious Disease Hospitalizations in Florida, 2016–2017. Clinical Infectious Diseases, 73(7), e1649–e1657. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa1278

Stanojlović, M., & Davidson, L. (2021). Targeting the Barriers in the Substance Use Disorder Continuum of Care With Peer Recovery Support. Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment, 15, 1178221820976988. https://doi.org/10.1177/1178221820976988

As we begin this session, I would like to take this opportunity to clarify my expectations for this course:

Please note that GCU Online weeks run from Thursday (Day 1) through Wednesday (Day 7).

 

Course Room Etiquette:

• It is my expectation that all learners will respect the thoughts and ideas presented in the discussions.
• All postings should be presented in a respectful, professional manner. Remember – different points of view add richness and depth to the course!

 

Office Hours:

• My office hours vary so feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] or my office phone is 602.639.6517 and I will get back to you within one business day or as soon as possible.
• Phone appointments can be scheduled as well. Send me an email and the best time to call you, along with your phone number to make an appointment.
• I welcome all inquiries and questions as we spend this term together. My preference is that everyone utilizes the Questions to Instructor forum. In the event your question is of a personal nature, please feel free to post in the Individual Questions for Instructor forumI will respond to all posts or emails within 24 or sooner.

 

Late Policy and Grading Policy

Discussion questions:

• I do not mark off for late DQ’s.
• I would rather you take the time to read the materials and respond to the DQ’s in a scholarly way, demonstrating your understanding of the materials.
• I will not accept any DQ submissions after day 7, 11:59 PM (AZ Time) of the week.
• Individual written assignments – due by 11:59 PM AZ Time Zone on the due dates indicated for each class deliverable.

Assignments:

• Assignments turned in after their specified due dates are subject to a late penalty of -10%, each day late, of the available credit. Please refer to the student academic handbook and GCU policy.
• Any activity or assignment submitted after the due date will be subject to GCU’s late policy
• Extenuating circumstances may justify exceptions, which are at my sole discretion. If an extenuating circumstance should arise, please contact me privately as soon as possible.
• No assignments can be accepted for grading after midnight on the final day of class.
• All assignments will be graded in accordance with the Assignment Grading Rubrics

Participation

• Participation in each week’s Discussion Board forum accounts for a large percentage of your final grade in this course.
• Please review the Course Syllabus for a comprehensive overview of course deliverables and the value associated with each.
• It is my expectation that each of you will substantially contribute to the course discussion forums and respond to the posts of at least three other learners.
• A substantive post should be at least 200 words. Responses such as “great posts” or “I agree” do notmeet the active engagement expectation.
• Please feel free to draw on personal examples as you develop your responses to the Discussion Questions but you do need to demonstrate your understanding of the materials.
• I do expect outside sources as well as class materials to formulate your post.
• APA format is not necessary for DQ responses, but I do expect a proper citation for references.
• Please use peer-related journals found through the GCU library and/or class materials to formulate your answers. Do not try to “Google” DQ’s as I am looking for class materials and examples from the weekly materials.
• I will not accept responses that are from Wikipedia, Business com, or other popular business websites. You will not receive credit for generic web searches – this does not demonstrate graduate-level research.
• Stay away from the use of personal pronouns when writing.As a graduate student, you are expected to write based on research and gathering of facts. Demonstrating your understanding of the materials is what you will be graded on. You will be marked down for lack of evidence to support your ideas.

Plagiarism

• Plagiarism is the act of claiming credit for another’s work, accomplishments, or ideas without appropriate acknowledgment of the source of the information by including in-text citations and references.
• This course requires the utilization of APA format for all course deliverables as noted in the course syllabus.
• Whether this happens deliberately or inadvertently, whenever plagiarism has occurred, you have committed a Code of Conduct violation.
• Please review your LopesWrite report prior to final submission.
• Every act of plagiarism, no matter the severity, must be reported to the GCU administration (this includes your DQ’s, posts to your peers, and your papers).

Plagiarism includes:

• Representing the ideas, expressions, or materials of another without due credit.
• Paraphrasing or condensing ideas from another person’s work without proper citation and referencing.
• Failing to document direct quotations without proper citation and referencing.
• Depending upon the amount, severity, and frequency of the plagiarism that is committed, students may receive in-class penalties that range from coaching (for a minor omission), -20% grade penalties for resubmission, or zero credit for a specific assignment. University-level penalties may also occur, including suspension or even expulsion from the University.
• If you are at all uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism, you should review the resources available in the Student Success Center. Also, please review the University’s policies about plagiarism which are covered in more detail in the GCU Catalog and the Student Handbook.
• We will be utilizing the GCU APA Style Guide 7th edition located in the Student Success Center > The Writing Center for all course deliverables.

LopesWrite

• All course assignments must be uploaded to the specific Module Assignment Drop Box, and also submitted to LopesWrite every week.
• Please ensure that your assignment is uploaded to both locations under the Assignments DropBox. Detailed instructions for using LopesWrite are located in the Student Success Center.

Assignment Submissions

• Please note that Microsoft Office is the software requirement at GCU.
• I can open Word files or any file that is saved with a .rtf (Rich Text Format) extension. I am unable to open .wps files.
• If you are using a “.wps” word processor, please save your files using the .rtf extension that is available from the drop-down box before uploading your files to the Assignment Drop Box.

Grade of Incomplete

• The final grade of Incomplete is granted at the discretion of the instructor; however, students must meet certain specific criteria before this grade accommodation is even possible to consider.
• The grade of Incomplete is reserved for times when students experience a serious extenuating circumstance or a crisis during the last week of class which prevents the completion of course requirements before the close of the grading period. Students also must pass the course at the time the request is made.
• Please contact me personally if you are having difficulties in meeting course requirements or class deadlines during our time together. In addition, if you are experiencing personal challenges or difficulties, it is best to contact the Academic Counselor so that you can discuss the options that might be available to you, as well as each option’s academic and financial repercussions.

Grade Disputes

• If you have any questions about a grade you have earned on an individual assignment or activity, please get in touch with mepersonally for further clarification.
• While I have made every attempt to grade you fairly, on occasion a misunderstanding may occur, so please allow me the opportunity to learn your perspective if you believe this has occurred. Together, we should be able to resolve grading issues on individual assignments.
• However, after we have discussed individual assignments’ point scores, if you still believe that the final grade you have earned at the end of the course is not commensurate with the quality of work you produced for this class, there is a formal Grade Grievance procedurewhich is outlined in the GCU Catalog and Student Handbook.