Study Guide: Components of Working in the Substance Abuse Field, Older Adults Continuum of Care, Social Workers in Law Enforcement

1) The critical components of professional practice while working in the substance abuse field:

I. Engagement: - This process continues throughout all of the stages, or components. Engagement involves building rapport with the client but because people with substance abuse problems are often scared, emotional, defensive and unable to trust this can be difficult. Preparing prior to the initial interview is very important as well as limiting any interruptions while meeting with your client.

II. Assessment: - Assessment of a person with a possible substance abuse problem can be very complicated. First step is to find out if the client is suffering from substance abuse or substance dependency. The various dimensions of an assessment are biological, psychological and social. - The biological assessment can be done by reviewing their medical history and current health and can provide clues to any medical treatment needed. - The psychological dimension involves reviewing the clients mental health history to determine if there may be any underlying mental disorder. Questions about anxiety levels, depression, unresolved trauma or grief are asked then shifts to the reasons for starting, stopping and continuing the behavior. - The social dimension involves engaging the client in review the various people in their life: family, friends, co-workers and other social networks. Who supports them, where is there tension and stress, what relationships have been affected by the behavior, etc... - Strength based assessments focuses on what the client wants in their life and tends to me more motivating. Exploring the strengths in addition to the negative provides a better balance and is respectful. - Once the assessment has been made, the next step is to develop an intervention plan that is unique to the situation and the client.

III. Intervention: Interventions focus on work at many different systems levels, from individuals and families to organizations and communities. In addition, include inpatient detoxification to help with the initial withdrawal and pre-existing medical problems. There is behavioral approach that involves changing behavior by using positive and negative reinforcement. Family interventions, which help to identify relationships and communications that encourage or excuse substance abuse behavior. There are also options to join self-help groups or group therapy, which focus on the why's. In some cases medication may need to be prescribed or moving to a therapeutic community is necessary.

The social worker decides which approach to take or what strategy to use and client based on what the client needs, their culture, and specific goals.

2) Most older adults want to maintain independence as long as possible; how has this led to the development of a continuum of care for older people?

- The continuum of care is based on the principle of least restrictive which involves helping the older adult remain in their own home for as long as possible. Some of the services apart of the continuum that are least restrictive include monitoring services like life alert, homemaker services that involve someone assisting around the house (cleaning, laundry, shopping, or personal care such as, bathing and dressing etc) or even in home health care.

3) Social workers involved in low enforcement... Social workers are involved in cases regarding traffic accidents and fatalities, child abuse, suicide, alcohol and substance abuse, mental health emergencies and family disputes. Social workers provide crisis intervention, brief individual or family counseling, referrals, victim assistance as well as community crime prevention efforts.
Home visits, crime scene crisis work, and increasingly involved in crime prevention work in the community by leading action efforts related to the development of youth services, drug courts and even in the reform of mental commitment laws.