Substance Use Disorders in Young Adults: A Health and Social Care Perspective Assignment

Introduction

Nature/Extent of the problem or issue

Substance use/abuse within the young adult population is a growing concern that impacts service delivery, clients, and policymakers. A preview from the World Health Organization (WHO) indicates that substance use disorders are common among the youth contribute to higher incidences of diseases, mental disorders, and deaths among the young adult population (WHO, 2023). The community members and especially the young adults who use these services suffer from social discrimination, lack of job opportunities, and physical and mental decline from long-term substance dependency. According to a clinical study, opioid and stimulant abuse raises the risk of cognitive dysfunction and depression, apart from the vulnerability to get contracting diseases (Volkow et al., 2022). They also realize that healthcare professionals and social workers are equally constrained due to the lack of provision of numerous resources and high rates of relapse. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and Medication-Assisted Treatments are well-recognised interventions that continue to address dependency and also help recover in a better way (NIDA, 2023). However, it is still challenging for specialists to select the closest to the ideal treatment with the help of which one can meet patient expectations regarding the choice of harm reduction as opposed to abstinence-model options.

Over the years political leaders have played a significant role in formulating the prevention and rehabilitation policies of the drugs. Measures such as shared use of needles and no penalty for drug use, among others have proven helpful in lowering harm (EMCDDA, 2022). However, there is a question as to whether our attitude should be punitive or rehabilitative. This paper affirms that preventive and early intervention and multisectoral care approach, which is a public health approach, is more effective in managing alcohol use disorders in the young adult population. Thus, further, a multi-disciplinary type of team approach should be applied in addressing this problem.

Sources of evidence that support the research question

To understand the current trends in drug addiction among the young adult population and to discuss the effectiveness of intercessions being implemented and potentially implemented by the health and social care services, it is crucial to turn to contemporary research. There are three special articles available in the three years that shed light on this problem.

• "Digital Interventions for Substance Use Disorders in Young People" (2023):

The current research topic focuses on the effectiveness of the various forms of media in the treatment of substance use disorders among the youth. The study shows that mobile applications and online counselling, are some of the efficient and cheaper measures in prevention, early identification, and intervention. These platforms are particularly helpful for young adults since they can have problems with traditional face-to-face therapy like the stigma or lacking access to therapists in their areas. It also points out the issue of IT support for participative communication in expanding the range of healthcare services (Monarque, Sabetti and Ferrari, 2023).

• "Support Services for Young Adults with Substance Use Disorders" (2022):

This paper aims to discuss the factors that characterize support services in the early recovery of young adults suffering from substance use disorders. It applies for this reason the concept of a comprehensive solution that Hall termed as health, housing, occupation, and connection. The study further showed that managed care services that embrace the psychological and social needs of the patients enhance the results. To address the needs of young adults, the study recommends policies on the development of coping support for such families (Xuan et al., 2021).

• "Principles of Care for Young Adults with Substance Use Disorders" (2021):

This paper aims to describe the approaches in the development of care principles for young adults with substance use disorders. It points out that the standard approaches contradicting to treat this group are not effective as they do not account for the development and social issues this group has to face. There are care plans with programs that address families, community involvement, and education and vocational importance for the development of the framework. Applying these tenets within the care of health and social care services will enhance the efficiency of the intervention made and significantly improve recovery (Silverstein et al., 2021)

Rationale for Doing the Study

Young adults’ substance use is an emerging public health issue with various consequences for youths and the general populace, caregivers, and policy-makers. It is necessary to conduct this study to fill the gaps in the knowledge regarding the complexity of SUDs in young adults and to recognise the appropriate treatment strategies in health and social contexts. Through assessment of real-life issues in encouraging addictions, this study will help outline effective rehab solutions that will ultimately enhance the success of the therapy.

Informed Health and Social Care Practice

This research will enhance the understanding of perceived shortcomings in popular approaches to addiction treatment and discover new appropriate models for young adults. Standard approaches that are sometimes targeted to elderly people do not identify the developmental, social, and psychosocial demands younger adults usually encounter in their lives. The WHO has reported that young adults with SUDs are particularly disadvantaged when it comes to stigma, care access, and high relapse rates due to social pressures and poor support (Volkow et al., 2022). This paper will compare complex care approaches including cognitive behavioural therapy, harm reduction approach, and digital health interventions to establish their effectiveness in the recovery processes. Furthermore, most health and social care organizations are associated with deficiencies in staff short supplies, and an increasingly patient population to handle. This study will also compare the role of using technology in treatment, especially in implementing technology, peer support, and community-based programs within this treatment model. In so doing, it will provide some solutions for increasing the effectiveness of services, decreasing rates of relapse, and increasing the quality of treatment for young adults with substance use disorders.

Benefits to Stakeholders

Young adults with SUDs as service users:

Young adults who are struggling with substance dependency experience a myriad of challenges including psychological problems, loneliness, and inadequate access to adequate treatment. This text will encourage the utilization of patient preferences-focused interventions that would incorporate the patient characteristics. Culturally competent treatment methods involve the patient’s contribution in the planning of their treatment since this results in compliance and long-term recovery (NIDA, 2023). Depending on the results obtained from the analysis of specific, real-life problems in substance dependence treatment, the proposed solutions shall be more accessible, free from stigma, and appropriate for young individuals.

Service Providers (Healthcare Professionals and Social Workers):

The personnel involved in providing health care encompasses physicians, nurses, and paraprofessionals such as social workers who have an essential function in the recovery procedures of addicted individuals. Nonetheless, there are difficulties in reactivating young adults to go for treatment and, in general, working through the factors that lead to addiction- illness, childhood trauma, and poverty among others. The findings of this investigation will help in making recommendations that will improve their capacity to promote age-appropriate as well as culturally appropriate care (Mizrahi and Abramson, 2000). Moreover, it will acknowledge the importance of teamwork in addressing a patient’s health concerns, which should involve collaboration between medical, psychological, and social workers.

Policy Makers (Government and Public Health Officials):

The government is in charge of decision-making regarding the substance abuse issue and the provision of funding to the rehabilitation centres. This work will provide the research findings on the efficiency of harm reduction interventions, early interventions, and technology-based solutions. It will involve the provision of examples that depict the achievement of comprehensive addiction care, which will also help shape the policies that address the prevention of addiction and ensure that treatment is accessible and people receive proper rehabilitation services afterwards. Also, the study will call for the need to fund youth-oriented addiction services as well as adopt community health-based services which are vital for youths (Loncarevic et al., 2021).

Justification for the Chosen Methodology

The methodology of previous studies

The current trends in drug addiction research focusing on young adults have involved a wide range of quantitative, qualitative, and mixed-method analyses. Some of the quantitative research done by Volkow et al. includes clinical trials in which survey data are collected to estimate treatment efficacy, relapse rates, and behaviour modification. These studies help in understanding rates of addiction and recovery but do not consider the individual or social aspects. Quantitative and qualitative research focuses on the participants’ self-reported experience suffering from substance use disorder and involves interviews and focus groups. Other authorities focusing on this problem, such as NIDA (2023), also focus on stigma, mental health, and socioeconomic factors, which contribute to the development of addiction. Nonetheless, there could be deficiencies that are related to the fact that qualitative research may involve a limited number of people, or it is rather arbitrary. These increased efficacy findings include a range of different studies such as qualitative work combined with quantitative and/or qualitative work done by the World Health Organisation (WHO, 2023). This assert drafting enables the researchers to cross-check their findings by using various methods to ensure the reliability and generalizability of the conclusions. Therefore, it is imperative to note that the strengths of these previous studies come with weaknesses including staff bias, issues regarding the sampling of participants, and, most importantly, the lack of effective follow-up on participants’ well-being in the long-term after the intervention. This study is therefore going to progress from the current methodologies by incorporating digital health interventions and policy review and recommendation.

Justification of the choice of doing a literature review by appraising its strengths and weaknesses

Conducting a literature review is a valid approach to conducting the proposed study because it will provide an opportunity for critical analysis of the literature with the aim of ascertaining knowledge of drug addiction in young adults. Notably, one of its assets is the capacity to cover a great number of studies, which gives a clear and general insight into the problem. A literature review also involves comparing and contrasting different methodologies, research findings, and theoretical frames and orientations to reveal regularities, evidence, and discrepancies. This is useful in providing such general guidelines and policy recommendations without the need for undertaking detailed primary research. Thus, it also saves time by appraising solely the peer-reviewed articles and also lets the findings be more real-life usable for the health and social care practices. Still, a literature review also has some limitations as follows. However, as it is a secondary research technique, it does not collect primary data and its applicability may be limited by the availability and quality of studies. Such a shortcoming concerns possible biases in the choice of the research and its interpretation, as some articles may be published in rather long time, relatively unconvincing, or methodological issues can adversely affect the results. Moreover, applying the results that have been obtained in various contexts can be problematic as the efficiency of addiction treatment might be different for different populations and healthcare settings. At the same time, it is significant to note that a variety of limitations is associated with the use of literature review as an approach to systematically review real-time issues and guide the best practice interventions.

Method

A systematic approach is important when conducting a literature review, especially on the topic of drug addiction in young adults to include those studies that are relevant, evidence-based, and of good quality. This process includes a systematic approach to the identification, compilation, scrutiny, appraisal, and integration of information obtained from existing literature. The below highlights specific measures that were adopted and implemented to achieve a thorough and conclusive review.

Data Search Strategy

A literature search will be done using peer-reviewed articles in the relevant academic databases available to aid in the discovery of a literature review on drug addiction in young adults. The search results will be limited to the articles and other sources published in the last 3 years. The following databases that will be used include:

• PubMed – A reputable database for healthcare and clinical studies.
• CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) – A key resource for social and health care literature.
• PsycINFO – A leading psychology database for studies on mental health and addiction.
• Google Scholar – For further studies search for more peer-reviewed articles and other non-peer-reviewed studies (Duffield, 2011).

The keywords to be used will be the ones based on the research question and the Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT. Keywords will include:

• “Drug dependency” OR “substance abuse”
• "Young adults" OR "adolescents"
• Outcomes might be referred to as “treatment,” “rehabilitation,” or “harm reduction.”
• "Healthcare" OR "social care interventions (Aveyard and Pam, 2013)"

To expand the search, filtering will be applied to include only articles from peer-reviewed journals, systematic reviews, and meta- analysis articles published in English.

Selection Criteria

Inclusion Criteria: Research articles will be selected according to some standards that will help in filtering out the related articles that meet the study’s objectives and highly methodological quality. The papers that will be utilized will only be the ones that have been published in the last three years to capture relevant information. It has to be implemented specifically for young adults that are between the ages of 18 to 25 years since this age group falls under the high risk of substance use and substance dependency. Inclusion criteria for eligible studies consist of contingency and sound research that uses quantitative, qualitative, or combined qualitative and quantitative methods to obtain credible findings. Also, the studies that involve treatments, policy regarding, or any form of intervention regarding the problem of drug addiction must be applicable when implemented(Moser and Korstjens, 2017). Last of all, articles published in peer-reviewed journals will only be used to ensure the reliability of the findings of the research.

Exclusion Criteria: Qualitative and quantitative studies, emphasizing specific aspects of perceived health, quality of life, and subjectivity, will be excluded if they do not fit within the proposed research theme and methodological guidelines. All research has to deal with drug addiction in children and elderly people will not be included as the study is targeted at young adults between the age of 18-25 years. Thus, the articles with only opinions and non-reviewed sources will also not be used to guarantee the reliability of the results. Therefore, please exclude papers that have been published before a certain year or have ambiguous research methods that cannot support current research(Korstjens and Moser, 2017). However, studies that are related solely to criminal justice systems, instead of their healthcare aspect, will be left out because this paper aims to explore and present treatment strategies, kinds of healthcare policies, and social care interventions.

Data Extraction Process

The process of extracting data is a coherent and purposeful process of searching and identifying specific details within chosen studies. An organized table will record credibility based on the author (s) and year of publication to identify the aim of the study to define the study focus and the methodology including sample, design, etc. Primary outcomes will comprise a result of addiction treatment, whereas, factors that influenced the study will be listed under the limitations. Areas of practice implications will expound on points involving treatment and policies for improvements. It allows for consideration of all the core components to be included and examined logically and methodically, which is important when synthesizing the findings from the literature review to allow for analysis and application(Moser and Korstjens, 2017).

Data Assessment and Quality Appraisal

To filter out high-quality data, the assessment will be made using several tools. The CASP Checklist will enable the assessment of the credibility, relevance, and quality of specific qualitative research. Systematic reviews and Randomized Controlled Trials will be evaluated for methodological quality using the JBI Critical Appraisal Tool. The GRADE Framework shall define the quality of evidence in healthcare-related research. As outlined, each study will be evaluated on its validity that is, the right method as well as the method of analysis, reliability meaning consistency, biases and limitations, and relevance to young adults’ drug addiction and their health care interventions, thus narrowing down to the relevant and proven method to use(Barrett and Twycross, 2018).

Data Synthesis and Analysis

In this case, the thematic synthesis will apply where all the extracted and assessed studies to determine patterns of practice. Research will be classified into prevalence and risk factors reviewing all aspects of monocotyledonous addiction patterns and determinant factors in young people. Approaches will then focus on effective therapies such as cognitive-behavioural therapy and reductionist strategies. Health and social care needs will indicate issues like prejudice and no easy access. The primary interest of the policy and public health interventions will be government responses. This synthesis will present both the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for addiction treatment and policy to paint a fair picture of the different trends, lack, or inconsistency found in addiction treatment and policy (Barrett and Twycross, 2018).

At Native Assignment Help, we support students in developing well-researched, critically analysed academic work in health and social care disciplines. Our professional Assignment Help services assist learners in structuring evidence-based literature reviews, applying appropriate methodologies, and meeting university assessment criteria. With expert guidance and academic precision, students can confidently address complex public health issues such as substance use disorders among young adults.

References

Aveyard, H. and Pam, S. (2013) A Beginner’S Guide to Evidence-Based Practice in Health and Social care. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Barrett, D. and Twycross, A. (2018) Data collection in qualitative research, Evidence-Based Nursing, 21(3), pp. 63–64. https://doi.org/10.1136/eb-2018-102939.

Duffield, S. (2011) A beginner’s guide to evidence based practice in health and social care, Nurse Education in Practice, 11(3), p. e8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2010.12.005.

Babor, T. F., Caulkins, J. P., Fischer, B., Foxcroft, D. R., Humphreys, K., Medina-Mora, M. E., ... & Strang, J. (2021). Drug policy and the public good (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press.

European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). (2022). Health and social responses to drug problems: A European guide. Retrieved from https://www.emcdda.europa.eu

Korstjens, I. and Moser, A. (2017) Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 2: Context, research questions and designs, European Journal of General Practice, 23(1), pp. 274–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2017.1375090.

Loncarevic, N. et al. (2021) Policymakers’ research capacities, engagement, and use of research in public health policymaking, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(21), p. 11014. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111014.

Mizrahi, T. and Abramson, J.S. (2000) Collaboration between social workers and physicians, Social Work in Health Care, 31(3), pp. 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1300/j010v31n03_01.

Monarque, M., Sabetti, J. and Ferrari, M. (2023) Correction: Digital interventions for substance use disorders in young people: rapid review, Substance Abuse Treatment Prevention and Policy, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13011-023-00529-y.

Moser, A. and Korstjens, I. (2017a) Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 1: Introduction, European Journal of General Practice, 23(1), pp. 271–273. https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2017.1375093.

Moser, A. and Korstjens, I. (2017b) Series: Practical guidance to qualitative research. Part 3: Sampling, data collection and analysis, European Journal of General Practice, 24(1), pp. 9–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/13814788.2017.1375091.

National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). (2023). Principles of drug addiction treatment: A research-based guide (3rd ed.). Retrieved from https://www.drugabuse.gov

Silverstein, M. et al. (2021). Principles of care for young adults with substance use disorders, PEDIATRICS, 147(Supplement 2), pp. S195–S203. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-023523b.

Volkow, N. D., Blanco, C., & Swanson, J. M. (2022). "Pharmacological treatments for substance use disorders: A review of progress." Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 21(12), 843-861. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41573-022-00238-8

World Health Organisation (WHO). (2023). Substance use among young people: Health consequences and policy responses. Retrieved from https://www.who.int

Xuan, Z. et al. (2021) Support services for young adults with substance use disorders, PEDIATRICS, 147(Supplement 2), pp. S220–S228. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2020-023523e.