Social-ecological model
Social-ecological model Professor is used as a framework for the prevention of any social issue. In this case, the issue is drug abuse or addiction. The goal of the model is to stop the abuse of drugs before it begins. It is divided into five levels, individual, interpersonal, institutional, community and policy (“Heroin’s Puppet – Amy (and her disease)”). This model is relevant or is related to the heroine’s puppet story. Amy, the main character in the book, was a junior in the nursing program at Boston College. She was a bright student, and everything in life seemed to be going her way. In November 2009, she admitted that she was a heroin addict (Golden et al., 364). This means that their many social factors that could have led to such addiction. The many questions that most readers ask themselves is if the situation was preventable. This is the reason why the social-ecological model is relevant to Heroines puppet story. It will help to identify the loopholes in the society.
According to Chughtai et al. (2020), substance abuse is associated with many social factors. Among them is peer pressure. For Amy’s case, she might have ended up in a social clique that influenced her to abuse heroin. Since she wanted to fit in, she had to do it. The environment in which she was did not support her to overcome peer pressure. Most of the time, she was in college and thus had to do such activities without being judged. The other tries to find out why individuals who first abstained from the drug later had a relapse (Chughtai et al.). The authors found out that social cues play an important role in a person’s life. If a person lives in an environment where most of the people are drug abusers, then definitely he or she will be influenced. Also, vice versa is true. If a drug addict wants to abstain, then he should be able to surround him or herself with sober people (Chughtai et al.).
Application of the Social-Ecological Model
The first level in this social-ecological model is the individual. In this level, a lot of factors on the person is looked at. In the case of Amy, the parents admit that they were very moderate consumers of alcohol (Golden et al., 364). They never thought that their children would have any genetic effect of drug abuse. They had a miscarriage of their first son, and they were blessed with a daughter called Amy. Unfortunately, their daughter, who had seemed to be doing well in life fell for drug addiction. At this stage, it is important to say patient history plays an important role.
In this level, it is clear that the individual that biological factors and personal history might have increased the likelihood of Amy becoming a drug addict. Since she was born in a family where both parents drunk moderately, he grew up knowing that drugs had no issue as long as one does it moderately (Golden et al.). She never knew that she was becoming addicted as time went on. So in the social-ecological model, the individual level matters. If the individual level is clear from any influence, then the patient might have acquired the trait through other levels of the social-ecological model.
In this level, their various strategies that can be done to avoid the individual from being a drug addict. The first is educating the individual. He or she might be having beliefs or superstition that if their family member is a drug addict, then he or she will become one. If they are educated, they can clearly know the importance of abstaining. They would look at drugs as harm to both health. They can have hope that despite having being raised from a family where parents were moderate drinkers, he has time to change that notion. This belief was also seen by their parents when they said that there was no person in their extended family, who was a drug addict. This shows that they had a belief that when a person abuses drugs, it must be genetic.
Interpersonal level, this level is very critical. This is about all the relationships a person has in his or her life. For example, peer friends (“Heroin’s Puppet – Amy (and her disease)). They can either impact a person positively or negatively. In this case of Amy, it seems that she had friends who abused heroin. One thing about peer influence is that a person never sees him or herself getting into trouble since they are thinking as a mass (Golden et al.). For instance, in order for Amy to be able to fit in a particular social group, then he had to be like them. This peer pressure is common among the youth. They can also see celebrities abusing drugs, and they will blindly follow. In this level, their many strategies that can be utilized to prevent addiction. The first is family-focused prevention programs. In this strategy, the parent offers guidance to his or her child on the importance of abstaining from drugs (Golden et al.). Family members are the first person a child can trust and using these methods have often proved to be successful. The other programs are peer programs that are aimed at reducing drug abuse among youths. This program will help people like Amy. They can join them and be able to be guided on how to reduce drug abuse. This peer programs can have recovering drug addicts who will be able to give hope to their peer youth on how drugs had changed their lives. Lastly is promoting health by discouraging drug use. Campaigns can be started to push the narrative of the consequences of drug abuse and health effects.
The next level is the institutional level. Since Amy attended college, she changed drastically from a good girl who was doing well in her studies to a heroin addict. This shows that their many factors that led to her becoming a heroin addict. College life promotes many social behaviours, such as violence and drug abuse. This is because students from all over the country with different backgrounds converge at one institution. Students soon fall into different sociological class, and this determines whether they are in groups that abuse drugs or not. So the institution has to play a role in ensuring that students do not turn like Amy. They can first start campaigns that sensitize students on the need to abstain. The campaigns could be run regularly to ensure that they get reminded. The other is declaring the school as a drug-free zone. This will discourage students from engaging in drug-related activities. Lastly is starting a program that helps students who face peer pressure. They can be mentored and later be elected as drug ambassadors within the organization.
The next level is at the community level. This is a very crucial level since it identifies the person from his or her environment, such as a workplace or the place where he or she grows up. Amy grew up in a decent neighbourhood. They are showing that it did not have an effect on her drug abuse. Community-level plays a key factor. If a person lives in a place full of addicts, then chances of him or her becoming like them are high. This is because the community surrounding him or her do not have issues with one abusing drugs. In fact, they see him or her as fit for their social clique. The strategies are improving housing and economic opportunities in neighbourhoods. This means that the people in that area can be able to look for an activity that will help them be busy. Also, housing opportunities help because the neighbours can decide that they do not want to see people abusing drugs within that area since children will grow up witnessing that and become addicted. The last level is the policy level. This is crucial since it affects the entire population. When the government come up with policies that encourage drug addiction, then it would be hard to control it. So the government needs to be very strict on individuals found peddling such drugs.
I would recommend that the government to adopt this social-ecological framework when dealing with drug abuse that is witnessed in communities. This will help in managing addicts who have abused hard drugs such as heroin. The government could also set up policies prohibiting the sale of such drugs.
Work Cited
Chughtai, Kamran, Saira Javed, and Shoaib Kiani. “Substance Abuse: From Abstinence to Relapse.” Life and Science 1.2 (2020): 4-4.
Golden, Shelley D., and Jo Anne L. Earp. “Social-ecological approaches to individuals and their contexts: twenty years of health education & behaviour health promotion interventions.” Health Education & Behavior 39.3 (2012): 364-372.
Golden, Shelley D., et al. “Upending the social-ecological model to guide health promotion efforts toward policy and environmental change.” (2015): 8S-14S.
“Heroin’s Puppet – Amy (And Her Disease)”. Amelibro.Com, 2020, http://www.amelibro.com/heroinspuppet/. Accessed 21 Apr 2020.