Research Paper (my topic already chosen is mental health & alcoholism)

ALCOHOL AND SOCIAL WORKERS 2

Research Paper

Social Workers and Alcohol

BEHS 364 6381 Alcohol in the U.S Society

Professor John Gallagher

Nosta Tanyidah

September 27, 2019

Research Paper – Alcohol and Social Workers

Alcohol use and abuse remain a significant and behavioral health concern in the United States of America amongst social workers. Almost half of the twenty and a third million adults with alcohol use disorders in the United States of America have a re-occurring mental illness and a disease. There is expanding research to support, integrated treatment by providers with knowledge in both mental health and substance use critically lacks to an extent. Being a component of co-occurring disorders (COD) education initiative in the United States, studies have investigated how past providers’ previous training, current COD service provisions, and upcoming training needs to advert the side effects. In the course of the studies, it was investigated explicitly the scope to which social workers were prepared to treat individuals with COD compared to alcohol and drug psychotherapists. Social workers recounted getting considerably more mental health-related training, while alcohol and drug psychotherapists reported more substance use related practices to their superiors (Fisher & McCleary & Dimock & Rohovit, 2014).

Most social workers coupled with their dependency on alcohol were substantially more prone than alcohol and drug counselors to report choosing more teaching in substance use disorders and culturally certain practices of treatments and in so doing could be led to even greater abuse of alcohol. Alcohol use and mental health conditions have in the past been significant behavioral health concerns with social workers in the United States of America. Nearly half (45.1%) of the 20.3 million adults with a substance use disorder during the past year also reported a co-occurring illness due to overuse and abuse. Successful therapy and cure for co-occurring disorders can be challenging for social workers and alcohol and drug psychotherapists. In the USA, social workers serve as leading providers of mental health services for individuals with COD in a wide range of settings, including screening, case management, treatment team supervisors, and agency supervisors. In the discussion of curing clients directly or providing case management and referral for additional support services, social workers represent a critical element in the various systems where this population seeks services.

Given that trustworthiness of treatment, delivery is serious in achieving encouraging outcomes for patients with co-occurring disorders, a workforce that is capable of providing high-fidelity integrated treatment must have sufficient knowledge and training in both mental health and substance use, and the confluence of both. Since social workers and alcohol and drug counselors provide the majority of services for individuals with mental and substance use abuse, our study focused on these two groups to determine the extent to which their capability corresponds. In the process, the paper in the research addresses some study question about alcohol and social workers with regards to alcohol use such as: To what extent social workers are prepared to provide real cure for patients with co-occurring disorders compared to substance abuse therapists in the USA?

Though social work takes a distinctive influence to make in the field of AOD treatment, social workers in relation to alcohol seem to have a low level in involvement in the area and according to the 1991 National Drug and Alcoholism Treatment Unit Survey, only six percent of total staff across all treatment programs nationwide are social workers holding a master’s degree, however, according to 1988 Drug Abuse Treatment System Survey, 28 % of all the ‘‘managers’’ in the substance abuse treatment programs had social work degrees. A probable description for such an discrepancy could be that most social workers tend to be focused only on social works holding a master’s degree or higher. Furthermore, the low number of social workers in according to the study and for this research regarding the survey should mirror only to the low employment of MSWs and not BSWs. Once the MSWs and BSWs are group into one, as in Burke and Clapp’s (1997) article, participation of social workers no longer appears low and so doing makes a lot of sense in that it reflects the trend. Another difference between the two-studies worth noting and examined is that of both outpatient and inpatient/residential programs in the study, while they both targeted only outpatient programs and works. Social workers and professionals with alcohol issues may have differing degrees of participation in the two types of applications. No fiction has been found to explain what factors may be preventing social worker from graduating and from entering the arena of substance abuse treatment and prevention of the disease, except for the possibility that schools of social works do not require substance abuse courses (Sun, 2001)

Social workers who provide services to families affected by alcohol misuse in the Western Cape area of South Africa have been cautiously picked for a study, and the results were also staggering and worth including for this research. The conditions for selecting participants were that they had to have more than two years’ work experience and accurately, even in the field of substance abuse. Data were collected utilizing a half-structured interview manual. A pilot study was also executed to determine whether the interview guide as appropriate. Conversations were audiotaped and saved with the permission of the participants and recorded. This research was focused only on social workers’ as well as the views of parents who abused alcohol. The influence on the safety of families where both parents, or only the mother, abuse alcohol was not conducted for this study (Kühn & Slabbert, 2017).

The study encourages consideration of the main elements influencing an initial methodology to adolescent challenging alcohol consumption outside addiction public services. A sample inquiry form, including a sketch story of a young girl and her family, were submitted to thirty-five social workers who are personnel in public social services in Stockholm, Sweden, and Genoa Italy. The contributors were then invited to work on forming focus groups on discussing the main features that had emerged in the appraisals. From the results, one could see significant alterations between Italian and Swedish social workers’ estimations viz a-vis Italian social workers are in general more anxious and interventionist than are their Swedish colleagues. Swedish social workers tend to get involved less if Nadja’s consumption is “normal” teenaged behavior, while the Italian social workers, less familiar to considering such action as typical, are more worried and predisposed to intervene on time when Nadja is found drunk in the city center. The assessment offered by public social workers appears to be informed by cultural understandings of alcohol consumption which pervade and reveal prevalent tendencies in the two groups of professionals. Moreover, in Italy the social service authority appears to be divided among different service units, whereas Swedish social workers operate within an extensive welfare system that distributes specific properties for adolescent alcohol consumers (Guidi & Placido, 2015).

Approved social workers might be substantially dissimilar from unlicensed social workers. Moreover, individuals that were picked for this study’s sample, and respondents who completed the feedback form may not reflect the characteristics of the larger population of authorized social workers. Investigation indicates that people who completed the online surveys may be slightly different from those who participate in general studies. Research contributors were more likely to have been White and reported higher levels of education and earnings. Thus, random sample bias may have compromised outer accuracy and generalizability of results. When an emailed question about the incentivization process could not reach the participants during the momentary pause, as a participant wrote, “I have taken the time to complete the social work survey and had considerable difficulty submitting my email address for a chance to win the gift certificate to Amazon.” I found this quite frustrating and funny that it was just in line with commenting on how social work, in general, is appraised, I felt my efforts to support the research work was somewhat weakened by the composition of this component of the online method.” behavioral health of social workers in the USA, generating outcomes that will inform workforce development. Others expressed impatience about being included in the sample, suggesting the mailings were difficult. On the more radical side, several social workers replied with inappropriate remarks and offensive language that was used. The management of this study illustrated numerous advantages and challenges coupled with an online study of accredited professionals. As researchers consider the possibility of online surveys, significant consideration to the types of skills that could be utilized, and their goodness-of-fit with the prospective sample. When administered with dedication to the difficulties of survey technologies, online studies can contribute new information about health and health performances, including mental health and AOD challenges. (Steen & Kravitz & Straussner, 2018)

The roles of social workers in health care, mental health care, and social service settings often mean that they are among the first service providers to meet with clients. Failure to train social workers to provide patient-centered, evidence-based interventions, such as SBIRT, has serious individual, family, and community-level consequences. Most social workers receive inadequate training in substance use prevention and treatment. Insufficient education perpetuates social workers' negative attitudes toward persons misusing alcohol and further contributes to the shortage of qualified behavioral health professionals. Social work education must ensure new professionals develop the skills needed to address the magnitude of alcohol misuse. Effective training, particularly within early career development, provides the skills and confidence necessary for SBIRT implementation. Pieces of training that positively affect social workers' knowledge and attitudes toward alcohol use are necessary to provide patient-centered, respectful, and individualized care. Based on evidence from the medical context, it stands to reason that ongoing instruction and supervision would support social workers' successful integration of SBIRT in practice. Although social work field instructors must mentor their students as they develop SBIRT competencies, instructors might not have the requisite knowledge, confidence, and skills to supervise students in its application. To more effectively improve the burden of alcohol misuse, social work programs must continue to develop innovative, yet feasible, ways to train social workers to get involved with clients at risk for alcohol abuse. As technological advances continue to aid instructional practices in social work programs, it will become increasingly important to test the feasibility, acceptability, and added the effect of computerized simulation training, as well as other innovative teaching methods, on outcomes for students and field instructors. The SBIRT training model presented in this article is feasible, remains appropriate, and findings in considerable changes in trainees' knowledge, mindsets, confidence, plus self-perception of skills, with a notably large effect size for confidence ratings. Self-rating might or might not align with skill competency; therefore, the effectiveness of training must be evaluated by systematic observational assessment and ultimately by clients' outcomes. Putney & O’Brien & Collin & Levine, 2017).

Another study that was worth considering for this research had a goal of at minimum two applicant contacts during the monthly period, and social workers reached out to participants falling cautious of this target. Individual therapy was offered by phone if contributors were unable to get to the clinic for the reason that they not have transportation. Group psychotherapy time was divided between psychoeducational substance and process psychotherapy. Group therapy was open to adjusting immediately any new recommendations. Social workers had choice in choosing what data would be most beneficial to the recent group members. The clinical social workers used cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) and motivational enrichment therapy (MET), which are two evidence-based treatments for substance use and mental disorder. Most study participants were men (63 percent) and African American (86 percent), with an average age of 47 years. Nearly one-third (30 percent) of partakers had less than high school education, 88 percent were jobless, and 61 percent qualified for incapacity. When changes in depression were modeled in place of changes in unease (as noted earlier, the correlation between depression and anxiety was too high to include both variables in one model), baseline hopelessness was not associated with alcohol use severity (β = .0015, p = .22), but more significant reductions in depression (β = −.0026, p = .030) were related to lower alcohol use severity at follow-up. The clinical social workers were all LCSWs with training in CBT. All but one was credentialed as a licensed clinical addiction specialist during the study — previous clinical social worker training in MET with an additional thirty hours of training. Throughout the study, the clinical social workers met monthly for group management with an LCSW expert in MET. Clinical social workers are solely positioned to provide component use and mental health treatment in a medical clinic. However, this was less of a concern in this study, because even though warning sign of despair and anxiety were found to be prevalent, the presence of severe and persistent mental ailment. They possess the cooperation and interpersonal skills needed to partner with medical providers to create joint healing plans, as well as the psychotherapy skills required to address substance use and mental ailment. Integrated care in clinics with enhanced communication between clinical social workers and medical suppliers can deliver improved treatment results (Proeschold-Bell & Reif & Taylor & Patkar & Mannelli & Quinlivan, 2016)

References

An-Pyng Sun. (2001). Systemic Barriers to the Employment of Social Workers in Alcohol and Other Drug Treatment Agencies: A Statewide Survey. Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions, 1(1), 11–24. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.1300/J160v01n01_03

Brisbane, F. L., & Philleo, J. (1995). Cultural competence for social workers [microform] : a guide for alcohol and other drug abuse prevention professionals working with ethnic/racial communities / editors, Joanne Philleo, Frances Larry Brisbane. [Rockville, Md.] : U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Center for Substance Abuse Prevention, 1995. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsgpr&AN=edsgpr.000468297&site=eds-live&scope=site

Fisher, C. M., McCleary, J. S., Dimock, P., & Rohovit, J. (2014). Provider preparedness for treatment of co-occurring disorders: Comparison of social workers and alcohol and drug counselors. Social Work Education, 33(5), 626–641. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.1080/02615479.2014.919074

Guidi Paolo, & Placido Matteo Di. (2015). Social work assessment of underage alcohol consumption: Non-specialised social services comparison between Sweden and Italy. Nordic Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, (2), 199. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.1515/nsad-2015-0020

Kühn, J., & Slabbert, I. (2017). The effects of a father’s alcohol misuse on the wellbeing of his family : views of social workers. Social Work/Maatskaplike Werk, (3), 409. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.15270/53-3-578

Proeschold-Bell, R. J., Reif, S., Taylor, B., Patkar, A., Mannelli, P., Yao, J., & Quinlivan, E. B. (2016). Substance Use Outcomes of an Integrated HIV-Substance Use Treatment Model Implemented by Social Workers and HIV Medical Providers. Health & Social Work, 41(1), e1. https://doi-org.ezproxy.umuc.edu/10.1093/hsw/hlv088

Putney, J. M., O’Brien, K. H. M., Collin, C.-R., & Levine, A. (2017). Evaluation of Alcohol Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Training for Social Workers. Journal of Social Work Practice in the Addictions, 17(1/2), 169. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=122857099&site=eds-live&scope=site

Steen, J. T., Kravitz, T., & Straussner, S. L. A. (2018). Lessons Learned From a Web-Based Study of Mental Health and Alcohol and Other Drug Problems Among Social Workers in the USA. International Journal of Mental Health & Addiction, 16(4), 975. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edb&AN=131114706&site=eds-live&scope=site