Role of Addiction Counselors in Community Prevention Programs

A. Prevention or treatment of this problem means a change of attitude, developing a healthy lifestyle, including physical activity and healthy food and drink choices.

In excess of ten years, health promotion and prevention has been the main focus of healthcare professionals in general, but nurses in particular. Health promotion is “the art and science of helping people discover the synergies between their core passions and optimal health, enhancing their motivation to strive for optimal health and supporting them in changing their lifestyle to move toward a state of optimal health (Edelman & Mandle, 2010, p. 14). Basically it is saying that it is the approach used to augment a sense of health in addition to reducing occurrences of

Substance abuse as well as addiction is a topic many people choose to ignore or tend to believe that it does not affect them. Addiction itself does not seek out certain types of people but can affect anyone, at any time, for any reason. Stress, per pressure, financial trouble, even genetics all play a role in substance abuse and addiction. Unlike others, I don’t see substance abusers as weak willed but instead in need of guidance and someone to talk to about their problems. That is why, when I decided to go to school I was very interested in becoming an Addiction Counselor. I am one of those types of people who really enjoy learning new things and coming up with solutions for myself or others. The biggest reason that I decided to go to college was to find a job that I was actually fascinated with and wouldn’t dread going to work day in and day out. The biggest concern I have for my future job is stability and job availability. One area that I don’t really find high on my priority list is the money. I want to be able to make enough that I can survive and even thrive at times but I’m not looking for a job just for the financial gain. If I’m going to spend my life in a working profession it might as well be doing something I love.

Finkelman, A. (2013) Health promotion, Disease Prevention, and Illness: A community Perspective.. In Professional Nursing Concepts (Second ed., pp 201-227). Burlington: Jones & Bartlet Learning.

This means attempting to reduce the levels of ill health, by introducing new programmes which identify people as being at risk of a condition and engaging them with preventative programmes. For example a programme that the government and the NHS do is to get people tested for HIV and provide them treatment. For people who don’t have HIV they can be given a free vaccinations, so they don’t get affected by the disease. Also another example is a doctor identifying someone with diabetes because of their obesity, which then they referrer you to a weight management programme for support in losing weight and sending you to a gym with others in the same programme. There are also adverts like Stoptober to help stop people smoking.

Primary prevention goals to prevent disease before it occur. For example counselling the public to the benefits of lifestyle changes such as high fiber diet, educate public to the importance of stop smoking and exercise regularly in preventing colorectal cancers .

The Global Criteria for the 12 Core Functions of the Substance Abuse Counselor, by John Herman, defines treatment planning as the process by which the counselor and client identify and rank problems, establish immediate and long-term goals, and decide on the treatment resources to be utilized.  Treatment planning begins as soon as initial assessments are completed.

For many years, health promotions and prevention has been the focus for healthcare providers, especially nurses. Health promotion seeks to improve a person or population’s health by teaching about and helps people become more aware of risky behaviors associated with different diseases. It encourages individuals to take preventative measures to prevent onset or worsening of a disease or illness. It encourages a healthier lifestyle (Edelman & Mandle, 2010). The strategy is to help people make health improvements or prevention before illness occurs.

First and foremost if we promote healthy lifestyle modifications, this increases the likelihood of preventing disease in the first place. In the event a disease process

Health should be approached from a preventative point of view. Education is important as it

Efforts towards health promotion can be ineffective at times therefore interception level of preventive health promotion is

The purpose of prevention, intervention, and consultation is to produce change in groups, individuals, systems, and societies (Eriksson, Falch, Lisznyai, & Ritook, 2003). In addition, they help to prevent incidences or reoccurrence of undesired incidences. In essence, each one are work for the wellbeing of people. An example would be offering WIC to pregnant women and children under 4 years of age with low income by developing safety eating habits. They also focus on development, change, and assessment (Eriksson et. al., 2003; Dougherty, 2010: Gladding & Newsome, 2003). According to Dougherty (2010), consultation can be also be prevented, because they both work together to make a positive

For the case of Gleyse Kelly, a discussion may develop as follows that best provides the basis for the conceptualisation of prevention strategies:

The World health Organisation says Health promotion is a method using an assortment of social and environmental interventions to support individuals in managing and improving their own health. (WHO, 2016).

Health promotion aims a wide range of targets at different levels in the community. The huge benefits resulted from health promotion and disease prevention efforts make many realize that this domain of health care is worth to be invested in. The focus is shifted evermore from the medical to the preventative approach, from treating the disease to avoiding the onset of it.