By: Glenn C. Mack
CJI 6530/HCP 6250
Substance Abuse Treatment in the Community
Nova Southeastern University
June 29th 2011
Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, refers to a maladaptive pattern of use of a substance that is not considered dependent. The term "drug abuse" does not exclude dependency, but is otherwise used in a similar manner in nonmedical contexts. The terms have a huge range of definitions related to taking a psychoactive drug or performance enhancing drug for a non-therapeutic or non-medical effect (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance_abuse). People affected by substance abuse can go through great lengths to maintain this unhealthy behavior. For this reason substance abuse is an area that requires ongoing attention and intervention. Within the criminal justice system there are researched based models that have proven effective measures. In this paper I will compare and contrast two models, the Health Belief Model (HBM) developed by Irwin M. Rosenstock in 1966 and the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) developed by James O. Prochaska in 1977. The HBM is one of the most used conceptual frameworks in the health behavior research. HBM is a health behavior change and psychological model for studying and promoting the uptake of health services. The HBM have several concepts and predict why some people will take action to prevent, to screen, or to control illness conditions. These concepts include: susceptibility, severity, benefits, barriers, and cues to action, self-efficacy and other variables.
Perceived Susceptibility is an individual 's assessment of their risk of getting the condition. For example an alcoholic must believe that it is a possibility of liver failure before getting a screen. Something must happen to the alcoholic before he or she thinks about taking a screening (ex. stomach ache, pain in the stomach, etc…). Perceived Severity is how serious an
References: Wikipedia, Substance Abuse. Retrieved June 12th 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Substance_abuse Wikipedia, Behavior Health Model. Retrieved June 12th 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_Belief_Model Wikipedia, Transtheoretical Model. Retrieved June 12th 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transtheoretical_model