Role of Addiction Counselors in Community Prevention Programs
Barker (1999,p.375) refers to prevention as: "Actions taken by social workers and others to minimize or eliminate those social, psychological, or other conditions known to contribute to physical or emotional illnesses…. Prevention includes establishing those conditions in society that enhance the opportunities for individuals, families and communities to achieve positive fulfillment."
Bloom (1996, p. 2) states that prevention is: "Coordinated actions seeking to prevent predictable problems, to protect existing states of health and healthy functioning and to promote desired potentialities in individuals and groups in their physical and sociocultural settings over time."
Social work seeks to enhance human well-being, helps to meet the basic needs of all people, pays particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, promotes positive social change, and demonstrates sensitivity to cultural diversity (Mayden and Nievies, 2000).
Prevention involves focusing on the conditions that contribute the problems, taking action before the problems or taking action before the problems develop or become serious.
The classification system consists of three types of prevention: primary, secondary, and tertiary. As characterized by Last (1983), primary prevention involves the promotion of health and elimination of alcohol abuse and its consequences through community-wide efforts, such as improving knowledge, altering the environment, and changing the social structure, norms, and values systems. Secondary prevention uses approaches available to individuals and populations for early detection within high-risk groups and prompt and effective intervention to correct or minimize alcohol abuse in the earliest years of onset. Tertiary prevention consists of measures taken to reduce existing impairments and disabilities and to minimize suffering caused by alcohol abuse.
INTRODUCTION:
Social workers play vital roles in assisting individuals, families, schools,
Bloom (1996, p. 2) states that prevention is: "Coordinated actions seeking to prevent predictable problems, to protect existing states of health and healthy functioning and to promote desired potentialities in individuals and groups in their physical and sociocultural settings over time."
Social work seeks to enhance human well-being, helps to meet the basic needs of all people, pays particular attention to the needs and empowerment of people who are vulnerable, promotes positive social change, and demonstrates sensitivity to cultural diversity (Mayden and Nievies, 2000).
Prevention involves focusing on the conditions that contribute the problems, taking action before the problems or taking action before the problems develop or become serious.
The classification system consists of three types of prevention: primary, secondary, and tertiary. As characterized by Last (1983), primary prevention involves the promotion of health and elimination of alcohol abuse and its consequences through community-wide efforts, such as improving knowledge, altering the environment, and changing the social structure, norms, and values systems. Secondary prevention uses approaches available to individuals and populations for early detection within high-risk groups and prompt and effective intervention to correct or minimize alcohol abuse in the earliest years of onset. Tertiary prevention consists of measures taken to reduce existing impairments and disabilities and to minimize suffering caused by alcohol abuse.
INTRODUCTION:
Social workers play vital roles in assisting individuals, families, schools,