PUBH 520

One of the personal health behaviors that we would aim to change in a rural population is alcohol dependency. Alcohol use has become a significant health behavior that has serious implications if not managed. Many people find it difficult to stop this behavior because it has become a way of forgetting their problems. From a personal standpoint, one of our members has had a previous experience with this issue and can provide insight into effecting personal behavior change. Effective health behavior intervention strategies rely on a theoretical foundation that combines social and behavioral theories and integrates the various levels of influence. Lastly, effective intervention strategies must take an ecological approach that considers how several factors, relationships, and environments have an impact (Hagger et al., 2020).

Successful behavior change involves incorporating the various levels of influence within an ecological framework such as the intrapersonal level. The intrapersonal level considers the “individual characteristics that influence behavior” (Hagger et al., 2020, p.11). To change alcohol dependence behavior at the intrapersonal level will involve understanding and changing the individual attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge about alcohol use. An intervention strategy that could be used is using education sessions that target children, young adults, and adults. This can involve conversations with children and young adults in school settings, as well as adults in public settings like libraries or churches within the rural populations. The focus of these conversations will be the detrimental effects of alcohol and techniques to decrease alcohol dependency such as self-discipline. For example, it is important to practice avoidance techniques that decrease the temptation to drink. It is also important to ensure that feelings that increase the urge to consume alcohol be controlled.

At the interpersonal level, it is important to combine forces with other healthcare professionals to provide education about the dangers of alcohol misuse. This can be based on offering insights, experiences, and life events. Because the interpersonal level is focused on the relationships and connections, our intervention strategy should be focused on the social networks that can influence alcohol use. An intervention strategy that could be used is providing education in community settings like churches about signs of alcohol dependency and concrete strategies to address it. This would provide family members and friends the tools to recognize alcoholism in their loved ones and methods to connect them to help.

In a rural setting, behavioral change will also involve understanding the socioeconomic and situational factors that contribute to alcohol dependence. Rural areas are more likely to have higher poverty and unemployment rates than metro areas (United States Department of Agriculture, 2019). This results in a higher percentage of young people participating in binge drinking (Marqués-Sánchez et al., 2020). At the environmental level, pursuing personal behavior change will involve studying drinking patterns among the ethnic and cultural communities. This enables all the stakeholders involved in the process of enacting policies that prevent alcohol dependency in the rural population (Hagger et al., 2020). This would involve building on the previous strategies discussed to first, raise awareness of programs that directly focus on the treatment of alcohol dependency, and second, promote programs that address the factors that contribute to alcoholism. Because young adults are particularly vulnerable, a social media campaign targeting the younger population could be helpful. The promotion of these strategies would fall under media advocacy as they would be carried out via social media and local advertising.

The health behavior model that we would incorporate into the intervention strategies is relapse prevention. This model is critical to the suggested interventions because it emphasizes the importance of early intervention. For the case of an alcohol addict, it is important to educate them about the benefits of abstaining from alcohol and ensure they are aware that relapse is a transitional process. This will require equipping our populations with coping strategies for dealing risky encounters (Rejeski & Fanning, 2019). The individuals can be trained on how to respond to experiences that induce depression or anxiety.

Another health behavior model could be used include is the self-determination theory which incorporates three areas including the need to experience competence, feeling meaningfully connected socially, and a feeling of autonomy over one’s life (Rejeski & Fanning, 2019). Therefore, this model would play a key role in helping the victims in refraining from their alcoholic behavior by helping them formulate goals that suit their immediate goals during the recovery process. Overall, these two models will complement each other along with the process of advocating for behavior change within the communities. This will involve the use of the ecologic model when helping the individual and it will allow us to focus on interventions that will promote abstinence. It is important to encourage the individuals to formulate goals that enable them to be successful and equip them with coping strategies to overcome barriers that might prevent them from achieving their goals.

The stakeholders identified as important to successful intervention programs include behavioral health practitioners so that they may provide counseling services and offer education to the members of the community on prevention and abstinence. It is important to work closely with the target population as they are one of the primary stakeholders at an intrapersonal level. At an interpersonal level we must consider those around our at-risk population to ensure they are aware of the interventions and strategies to help them avoid the prevailing community challenge. “Alcohol use has been identified as a major risk factor for acute and chronic health harms and imparts economic, health, and social costs to individuals, communities, and societies” (Flynn & Wells). This includes family, friends, church leaders, local officials, and other influencers. Relationships are fundamentally important and should not be underestimated when implementing personal behavior strategies. Finally, stakeholders like funding agencies will be important because they provide the funds necessary to run the program and they are vital to the ecological level of influence. Comment by Maria Gonzalez Chavez: Are we using this one or the first one then? I did incorporate some of Jaipal's notes here Comment by Maria Gonzalez Chavez: @Jaipal S Hooda @Lara Roelofs

References

Flynn, A., & Wells, S. (n.d.). Community Indicators: Assessing the Impact of Alcohol Use on Communities. National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism,

Hagger, M. S., Cameron, L. D., Hamilton, K., Hankonen, N., & Lintunen, T. (Eds.). (2020). The handbook of behavior change. Cambridge University Press.

Marqués-Sánchez, P., Quiroga Sánchez, E., Liébana-Presa, C., Fernández-Martínez, E., García-Rodríguez, I., & Benítez-Andrades, J. A. (2020). The consumption of alcohol by adolescent schoolchildren: Differences in the triadic relationship pattern between rural and urban environments. PloS one, 15(11), e0241135.

Rejeski, W. J., & Fanning, J. (2019). Models and theories of health behavior and clinical interventions in aging: a contemporary, integrative approach. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 14, 1007.