Special Populations

Special Populations

Article Summary

The article by Greeno, Lee, Tuten, and Harburger, D. (2019) assessed the prevalence of the impact of housing instability and substance abuse, and the independence preparation impact on the use of drugs among youth. The youth sample were those currently in foster care and those that are formerly from foster care. The samples were selected from a mid-Atlantic state. The former foster care youth resided in the largest state jurisdiction, while those still in foster care resided in the state’s rural jurisdiction. A web-based and paper survey was administered in collecting data. The findings of the research showed that youth still in foster care consumed drug substances at a rate equivalent to the national average. Youth formerly in foster homes, on the other hand, consumed substances at higher rates compared to the national prevalent rates. A high rate of housing instability was also reported for youth who were no longer in foster care. Additionally, there was a lesser rate of substance abuse among youth who were no longer in foster care and who had better preparation and life skills on independence prior to leaving the foster homes compared to their counterparts who had lesser preparation and life skills.

Obstacles to providing stable housing to homeless clients in addiction treatment programs

Greeno et al. (2019) point out that while most youths in foster homes and receiving addiction treatment get training on independent living skills, they still experience poor mental health. These youth also had limited educational achievement, which is a possible hindrance to the use of the attained independent skills after they were emancipated. Additionally, the authors pointed out that some studies have shown that independent living skills training had little impact on long-term outcomes, including educational attainment, employment, crime rates, reduced delinquency, and relationship skills. There is no key impact between youth who received training and those who did not receive the training. Additionally, there was no difference observed in social trajectory between youth that received training and those who did not. The youth pointed out that the services needed to be more realistic. Hence, a major obstacle to stable housing is the inadequacy of the skills training offered in foster homes.

Another obstacle is the sexuality of the youth. Youth who identify as queer, transgender, bisexual, gay, or lesbian have a higher risk of experiencing discrimination and social stigma and are also at a higher risk of substance abuse in comparison to their heterosexual peers. This social stigmatization and discrimination are a hindrance for the LGBTQ youth to attaining stable housing after leaving foster care and even after receiving addiction treatment (Greeno et al., 2019).

Strategies for Working Around the Challenge

The first strategy would be the creation of a skills training program that is realistic and, which can be adopted and applied in the real world. The life training skills should include self-assessment skills, identification of personal weaknesses and strengths, positive thinking skills, and skills for body image and self-image building (UNICEF, 2001). Other skills will include empathy-building, active listening, giving feedback and receiving the same, assertion and refusal skills, verbal and non-verbal communications, and negotiation and conflict management. In addition, the skills training will need to include kills for identification on what is important, influences on attitudes and values, and aligning behavior, attitudes, and values. Other skills include problem-solving skills, creative and critical thinking skills, analytical skills necessary for assessment of personal risks and the subsequent consequences (UNICEF, 2001). The youth will also need to attain skills in information gathering and alternative’s generation, self-control skills, how to cope with peer pressure, time management skills, how to deal with emotions and difficult situations, goal setting skills, and help-seeking skills (UNICEF, 2001).

The second strategy will be to lobby the local government to create a welcoming community for LGBTQ youth (Peter & Lazeer, 2009). A welcoming community can be created through developing a plan to create an infrastructure that is resourced and includes services, practices, structures, and policies that meet the preferences and needs of LGBTQ youth. The community will also provide resources and services to LGBTQ youth that are linguistically competent such as respectful, non-judgmental, and welcoming preferred terms for gender identity and sexual orientation, offered in sign language and other non-English languages. Symbols that support issues faced by LGBTQ youth could also be displayed in public areas and offices. For example, hanging pink triangles and rainbow flags on agency windows and walls lets the LGBTQ youth know that the agency or community welcomes them, and provides a safe space for them. Lastly, the community can have agency locations and service delivery hours, to the extent that is possible, which are accessible for LGBTQ youth (Peter & Lazeer, 2009). These youth are likely to seek services alone, and this may call for a considerable effort on the youth’s part.

Evaluate the needs of families who agree to allow a family member who is in addiction treatment and wants to move back home and strategies to support those needs.

Individual family members are often concerned about their family member’s substance abuse, but they also have their individual issues and goals apart from caring for their family members. Providing services to the whole family can improve treatment effectiveness. Family members may be skeptical about the addict family member’s recovery and change of behavior (Ferreira, Capistrano, Souza, Borba, et al., 2015). As such, the family members will more than likely treat the former addict with suspicion, and the relationship may be tense. The addict will have to work at proving their soberness which may not be an easy thing to do, especially if the addict has been to rehab previous times before. This suspicion can catapult the addict back to the old habit of substance abuse.

To mitigate this setback, family members need to be part of family therapy and where they will be advised on the need to be supportive of the addict’s new and drug-free life. Bradshaw, Shumway, Wang, Harris, et al. (2015) opine that family therapy sessions will help family members to deal with any anger and disappointment they may be feeling about the former addict. They will also learn how to make progress in stride and to be positive toward the recovery process of their loved one. Another strategy would be to have family members join peer groups. The peer groups for family members dealing with a former addict provide a non-judgmental and safe space where family members can learn, cope and discuss an addict in their midst trying to start a new life of soberness. Family members attending these meetings will find a better quality of life, have fewer problems with the recovering addict, lower stress levels, and improve on their psychological healing.

Types of challenges that communities face in providing effective case management for homeless addicted clients.

A community faces several challenges in providing effective case management, and these include a lack of housing stock and more so, permanent supportive, affordable housing (Malte, Cox, & Saxon, 2017). This lack of stock makes it challenging for service providers to help homeless persons. Another challenge is funding because homeless, addicted clients do not make it in the top priority list of people that need assistance from the local governments. State funding often goes to projects and programs that are viewed as beneficial to the community, and housing drug addicts is not a strong driver of getting state funds. Also, the funding requirements can be a challenge as funders have different expectations when it comes to the way services should be provided, who needs to be targeted, among others. Lastly, most of the collaborations, coordination, and partnerships are aimed at a specific sector, in this case, housing, rather than being cross-sectional, that is, involves corrections, child welfare, education, and housing (Malte, Cox, & Saxon, 2017).

In order to resolve these challenges and others as well, the local government needs to have in place, a crisis response system that identifies the homeless persons, prevents homelessness where possible, and connects the recovering addicts with housing quickly and provide the services when they are needed (Gaetz, 2020). A crisis response that is effective will achieve these goals through outreach and coordinated entry. Outreach workers will connect persons that are homeless with shelter, emergency services, and coordinated entry. Coordinated entry will call for quick identification, assessment, referral, and connecting persons to services. This strategy will work because it will involve aligning a community, its services, and its programs, around the common goal of making homelessness a non-recurring, brief, and rare occurrence.

References

Bradshaw, S., Shumway, S. T., Wang, E. W., Harris, K. S., Smith, D. B., & Austin-Robillard, H. (2015). Hope, readiness, and coping in family recovery from addiction. Journal of Groups in Addiction & Recovery, 10(4), 313-336.

Ferreira, A. C. Z., Capistrano, F. C., Souza, E. B. D., Borba, L. D. O., Kalinke, L. P., & Maftum, M. A. (2015). Drug addicts treatment motivations: perception of family members. Revista brasileira de enfermagem, 68(3), 474-481.

Gaetz, S. (2020). Making the prevention of homelessness a priority: The role of social innovation. American Journal of Economics and Sociology, 79(2), 353-381.

Malte, C. A., Cox, K., & Saxon, A. J. (2017). Providing intensive addiction/housing case management to homeless veterans enrolled in addictions treatment: A randomized controlled trial. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 31(3), 231.

Peter Gamache, M. B. A., & Lazear, K. J. (2009). Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, Intersex, and Two-Spirit.

Unicef. (2001). Life Skills-Based Education for Drug Use Prevention Training Manual. New York: United Nation Children’s Fund.

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Special Populations

PS450-5: Evaluate family needs according to the family systems model.

Read the following research articles about homelessness and addiction located in the Purdue Global Library:

• Greeno, E.J., Lee, B.R., Tuten, M., & Harburger, D. (2019). Prevalence of substance use, housing instability, and self-perceived preparation for independence among current and former foster youth. Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal, 36(4), 409-418.
• Malte, C. A., Cox, K., & Saxon, A. J. (2017). Providing intensive addiction/housing case management to homeless veterans enrolled in addiction treatment: A randomized controlled trial. Psychology of Addictive Behavior, 31(3), 231–241.
  

  Special Populations

Case managers find that those who belong to special populations (e.g., homeless veterans) benefit from family involvement in treatment. Before family members can be of assistance to the client though, they often need help in understanding addiction and their own role in family dysfunction. In this assignment, you will practice evaluating these needs as well as explaining the challenges that communities face in providing such services.

Complete the learning activity to prepare for this week’s assignment.

In a 4–6 page expository essay, responding to the following questions using the two articles above as references. Use other references including those from SAMHSA, NIDA, or the Purdue Global APA Journal Library.

1. Provide a brief summary of one of the assigned articles above.
2. Explain some of the obstacles to providing stable housing to homeless clients in addiction treatment programs. Mention at least two specific challenges and propose strategies for working around them.
3. Evaluate the needs of families who agree to allow a family member who is in addiction treatment and wants to move back home. Assume that the clients lived at home before and were evicted for using drugs in the home. Propose at least two services or strategies to support those needs. If you would like to discuss case management of homeless adolescents, you may do so.
4. Conclude with a discussion of the types of challenges that communities face in providing effective case management for homeless addicted clients. Suggest at least one solution.

The assignment should:

• Utilize a minimum of three peer-reviewed sources outside of your textbook to support your paper.
• Follow assignment directions (review grading rubric for best results).
• Use correct APA formatting per the current APA Publication Manual.
• Demonstrate college-level communication through the composition of original materials in Standard English.
• Be written in Standard English and be clear, specific, and error-free.