Community Needs Assessment-Drug and Substance Abuse

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Community Needs Assessment-Drug and Substance Abuse

Within my community, the problem of drug abuse, particularly among young people, is becoming more by the day. For this reason, I have decided to conduct a needs assessment for substance abuse in my community. A community needs assessment is a tactic that analyzes existing gaps within a community. Carrying out needs assessment is important to both community members and change-makers as it helps them take stock of their strengths and assets available at their disposal (Loscalzo, Sterling, Weinstein, & Salzman, 2017). If a community is facing a problem, it should use the available resources to help address the problem. First, the community needs to identify and differentiate between relative, absolute, perceived, and expressed needs. After doing so, they will be in a position to prioritize the most pressing needs.

Worth noting, conducting a needs assessment is not a one person issue; rather, it takes a group effort. To address the problem of drug and substance abuse, key individuals must be involved in the program’s success. To begin with, the community members must be willing to speak out and voice their concerns. They must be show that they are aware that there is a problem of substance abuse in the community. The initiative must come from the community members themselves. Also, community leaders, including local government officials, school boards, religious leaders, should be involved. This is because they influence the masses and many people tend to listen to them. Also, a team of stakeholders must be put together to oversee the implementation of the program. Community members should be included in the oversight team. This is because community involvement in projects breeds ownership and it increases the chances of success.

To address the substance abuse problem in the community, various steps are involved. The first step is to define the community. This includes identifying the type of population in the society. Also, bringing change requires understanding the values and attitudes that drive a community. For instance, in my community, the population is mostly middle-aged and majority of the population are people of color and women. They are highly unreligious people and they come from low economic backgrounds. This explains the rise of substance abuse particularly among young people. They are exposed to drugs from a young age, and they lack role models to look up to hence leading them to drug and substance abuse at an early age. After defining the community, coming up with a scope is important. The scope, in this case, is teenagers and young adults. Considering the available resources, the assessment will first begin with this group and then expand as the available resources increase. In terms of identifying assets, in this case, the assets include volunteers, availability of funding, policies, and organizations. With funds, rehabilitation centers can be constructed to help the people in dire need of help. Volunteers will help identify and recruit victims of drug abuse. Organizations such as churches will help draw influence while policies ensure that people who break the rules are apprehended. For instance, policies will ensure marijuana users in prohibited states are prosecuted. Making a connection is the next step. Here one can get in touch with leaders or look for help from health centers to help with data. The next step is collecting data. Data includes statistics that help program developers tell how dire a situation is and come up with a solution. For drug abuse, health reports can tell how many cases are admitted each month and the recovery rate of the addicts. The next step is analyzing the findings. In this case, one has to look at the gaps, strengths, opportunities and challenges. If most users are from low-income places, the program should find out where the users get the money to fund their drug habits. The final step is presenting the findings of the assessment in a needs assessment report. The report will help the community to know the exact recommendation that will best address the problem.

References

Loscalzo, E., Sterling, R. C., Weinstein, S. P., & Salzman, B. (2017). Alcohol and other drug use in older adults: Results from a community needs assessment. Aging clinical and experimental research, 29(6), 1149-1155.