An important issue within all of the substance abuse programs is child advocacy. Should social work detect and report and intervene when finding a discrepancy in an infants need for feeding and nurturing? Nonorganic failure to thrive (NOFTT) is the term given to infants from three to twelve months who have a deficit in typical weight gain during their first year of life. Since no medical conclusions pertain to the lack of weight gain, it is suggested that external factors are to blame. As discussed by Hutchison (2015), inadequate caregiving such as “environmental neglect (not enough food) stimulus deprivation and problems in the child-caregiver relationship” (p. 129) can consequentially bring about a myriad of developmental and health …show more content…
issues. Parents with mental illness, in constant conflict, who are abusive or abuse substances, can put a child at higher risk for developmental issues. Under these environmental conditions, a child’s brain and body are not allowed to mature properly which may affect his/her mental and/or physical functions in addition to contributing to health issues. A personal friend of mine has several health issues and a learning disability that she herself attributes to her upbringing by two substance abusing parents.
Her life has not been an easy one; she has had a lifelong struggle with asthma, eczema, numerous allergies (to just about everything) compounded by dyslexia. Her mother died of a drug overdose when she was a teenager and her father only became completely sober after her mom died. By that point she had almost reached maturity and the adverse effects on her developmental years had already taken place. Despite having an impoverished childhood and being the product of parents that neglected her in favor of their drug use, she has managed to overcome her struggles and manage these issues and will be receiving her master’s degree by the end of this year. Now in her late twenties, (her life course has been slightly delayed) this young woman has come a lot farther than many people that have none of the issues that have been working against her; I believe it is because she is personally determined not to follow in her parent’s footsteps and have a life she envisions for herself in spite of herself. She has expressed her lack of desire to ever have children and is apparently still a virgin. With all the of her struggles and her strength I cannot help but wonder how her life would look if someone intervened and shielded her from that environment and provided her with a nurturing place to
grow.
Jody was born biologically with male genitals and he was brought up as a boy. Unlike his more gender-typical older brother, Jody’s childhood behavior was considered “sissy”. Jody genetically preferred the company of girls compared to boys during childhood. Jody considered herself a bisexual male until the age of 19. At 19 years of age, she became involved with a man, and her identity would be transgender, meaning that Jody was unhappy with her gender of birth and seeks a change from male to female. It would seem that there was some late-onset dissatisfaction, and late-onset is linked to attraction to women; in comparison to early childhood-onset, which are attracted to men. Jody identified herself as bisexual. The relationship with the man ended; nevertheless, Jody’s desire to become a woman consumed her, and Jody feels that’s he was born in the
Coley is a timber cutter that is addicted to crystal meth. He has three young children, two girls and a boy and a wife that he affects everyday with his crystal meth abuse. Throughout the episode Coley locks himself in the garage, so he can snort powder form of crystal meth without his children being directly in front of it. Coley thinks that if he locks himself in the garage his children do not see his behaviors. Coley's addiction stemmed from his childhood where his mother was a speed addict and alcoholic and allowed Coley to do drugs and drink with her throughout his young teens and late adult hood. After Coley married his wife and his wife recognized the problem was connected to when he was at his mother's home she asked that he not be involved with his mother. Coley does this and shortly after his mother dies. This leads Coley to more drug abuse and his addiction becomes worse, due to the guilt he feels for hurting his mother and the guilt from the fact that she died alone. Coley somewhat blames his wife for this. Coley put his family in great danger with the bills not being paid and him putting off jobs for something he thinks will become his gold mine and turns out not to.
Intervention options include trauma focused substance abuse treatment and parenting with children present. Barriers to this plan include financial issues, maslows hierarchy of needs, if she is unable to keep housing then she will not be able to address psychological well-being. May need a mezzo intervention to ensure. Macro intervention to affordability and transportation etc. Affordability of quality care and transportation/price to travel. Progress will be evaluated through her maintained sobriety, and tracking of skills through the parenting program as well as a parenting stress index, scl 90-r, and
She is a twenty-two-year-old Guest services Agent who is presently working at the Sheraton Hotel in Queens, New York. During my interview with her I discovered that she and her family of four migrated from Jamaica in search of a better life here in the United States of America. She portrayed a warm and friendly personality, as such it was easy for me to talk with her about self-identity. She informed me that while she was in Jamaica she excelled in High School and went on to University where she studied Health Science. Her reason for choosing that field was because her mother was very much involved in her development and encouraged her to stick to the sciences where she could specialize in becoming a medical doctor in the future. Listening to her, I realized that her decision at the time was based on what her mother had in mind for her and not necessarily what she wanted to become. I questioned her if she had figured out what she wanted to do with her life then, she clearly had no idea therefore she just followed her parent instruction. She pointed out that her mother who played a significant role in her life, always instilled in her the importance of a good education and that becoming a doctor would be the right choice. When she arrived in the United States everything changed. I followed up with the conversation and she told me that she started rebelling and didn’t want to go back to
“Narcotics Anonymous is a nonprofit fellowship or society of men and women for whom drugs have become a major problem.” Addiction is one of the leading cause of death all over the world but for some reason no one has a solution to help these suffering addicts, they’re seen as a lost cause. Most people suffering in active addiction are sent to jails or institutions to be locked up until the drugs wear off then are released into society again. What people don't realize is that once an addict is released from these facilities, they’ll go right back to using because they don’t know how to live and deal with life on life's terms, this is where Narcotics Anonymous or other various other 12 step programs come in. They help the suffering addict by
It was the late 19th century when a lot of conflict for families from the Industrial Revolution and illegal drugs had easy access to anyone in the United Sates. These illegal drugs like morphine, cocaine, and alcohol were available through manufacture, delivery, and selling. It was proved that the over use of alcohol and violence in families’ homes were linked together around the 1850’s and that women and children were being abused by the father and husband from the letters and journals that were wrote. These were times when women were stay at home mothers and it was the man’s responsibility to be the provider for the wife and children. Because of the abuse in the household it led up to the temperance movement. The purpose
World hunger is a very important epidemic because of the risks or implications it imposes on the rest of the world. Juveniles are the utmost apparent victims of under-nutrition. 2.6 million children die as a result of hunger-related causes each year. 66 million school-aged children go to classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone. One in four of the world's youth are kept from growing due to malnutrition. In developing countries the proportion can rise to one in three. A strong maternal-infant bond provided through psychosocial stimulation is essential for positive child development. The formation of this bond at the beginning of life is an essential step that sets the stage for cognitive,emotional, and social development later in life. Feeding and other care practices provide opportunities for psychosocial stimulation and help to establish a positive attachment between caregiver and child.(WHO) Under-nutrition magnifies the effect of every disease, such as measles,diarrhea and malaria. Asia has the largest number of hungry people (over 500 million) however S...
Child abuse can come in many shapes in forms. There are four different kinds of abuse that I will be encountering in my research paper; they are physical, mental, emotional, and neglect. Most abuse is from neglect and net from physical. The category under physical also brings in the sexual abuse. (Do Something) Drug addicted babies also can qualify under the category of emotional and mental category. Two of the main questions in this paper are what is child abuse and what are drug addicted babies lives like. It turns out that babies lives do get affected majorly after the age of four, we’ll learn more about that later though. (Kronstadt, 2013)
The consequences that follow the use of any drug are unfavorable. Although many individuals may see drug addiction as a mere lifestyle choice, it is a problem that many individuals suffer from and inevitably a growing issue that leaves major social and economic impacts.
Despite the higher cost, a high-end substance abuse treatment center does not constitute better treatment. The support of therapists, counselors, family, friends, and peers can all be important factors in the recovery process. The most significant factor for an individual in the recovery process is a desire and a willingness to change. Many options exist for individuals that want to recover from addiction. These options include substance abuse rehabilitation centers and support groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and SMART Recovery. These programs all have the same goal but use different techniques that at times even contradict other programs. Although the approach of the programs may vary, they have all been proven to work for certain individuals.
The ingestion of alcoholic beverages for their enjoyable effects is a custom which has been around for thousands of years, and alcohol continues to be a popular drug because of its short-term effects (Coleman, Butcher & Carson, 1984). An enormous amount of damage can be attributed directly to alcohol abuse as a result of lost jobs, accidents caused by drunk drivers, and so forth (Maltzman, 2000). Alcohol also compounds other problems--an estimated 25% to 40% of hospital patients have problems caused by, or recovery delayed by alcohol abuse (Maltzman, 2000). Clinical psychologists spend about one-fourth of their time dealing with people who are suffering in part from alcohol or other substance problems (Vaillant, 1995). Although alcohol problems have been around for so long, it is only recently that these problems have begun to be associated with medical or psychological difficulties.
The addicted individuals need to be aware of the services that are available for them and their children during and after their addictive stages. The abuse that some of these children endure can start at the earliest stages of their lives. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome begins to effect the child while it is still in its mother’s womb. This disease not only effects the child physically, but emotionally and intellectually. Many parents continue to abuse substances while they are knowingly pregnant.
Substance use disorders and mental health disorder can be challenging for human services professionals as well as for the individual; combined these disorders together and treatment can be seemingly insurmountable. The complexity of the disorders separately, as well as together raises the need for treatment that looks at the whole person not just a set of symptoms. The debate between which disorder came first is useless at helping to resolve the problems that are currently occurring with these complex disorders. According to Stevens & Smith (2013), over five million adults have a co-occurring disorder. With such high number it’s no surprise that the amount of money that is spending on co-occurring disorders is staggering and far exceeds that
Bronte-Tinkew, J., Zaslow, M., Capps, R., & Horowitz, A. (2007). Food insecurity and overweight among infants and toddlers: New insights into a troubling linkage. Washington, DC: Child Trends.
Substance abuse is an issue that plays a major social problem in society, the effect of drugs on families and communities is destructive. This paper will discuss evidence showing how substance abuse is a specific social problem that is widespread, and is affecting every level of our judicial system. Many people turn to drugs for many different reasons, they will try just about anything to relieve the pain. In our society today many people go through devastating experiences in their life. Furthermore people turn to drugs to mask the horrible memories and find relief. Drugs can temporarily relieve the symptoms of angry, loneliness or boredom, but it may be a temporary fix to an individual problems. They may