Introduction
When it comes to drug and alcohol abuse, Florida is far higher than the national average, with this pattern being present in Miami Gardens as well. It has turned into a major economic issue. However, the financial impact of alcohol misuse in Florida is not the only one. Alcohol treatment facilities in Florida point out that the whole cost has an impact on society. Alcoholism has been on the rise in Florida over the past two decades, according to recent data.
While Miami Gardens is waging its own drug wars with opioids and cocaine, alcohol use continues to climb throughout all age categories, especially among women. The new data also matches tendencies from the summer of 2020, when the coronavirus struck, when many Floridians resorted to alcohol and other narcotics in the face of unpredictable circumstances. This method was the only alternative for people at a time when almost all public places were closed.
Main body
As with most multilayered social phenomena, it is difficult to distinctly identify the precise causes behind the alcohol issue in Miami Gardens. According to research published in 2019, 18 percent of individuals in Florida participate in excessive or binge drinking, up from 16.2 percent in 2002 (Wang et al., 2020). The most common substance found in decedents, according to the Florida Medical Examiners Commission, is alcohol. Between 2012 and 2019, the number of deaths caused by alcohol increased across the state (Wang et al., 2020). In the same period of time, the number of decedents for whom alcohol was a contributing factor in death grew by 72 percent (Wang et al., 2020). The overall number of alcohol-related occurrences statewide increased from 4,029 to 5,385 occurrences, indicating that a substance did not play a direct role in the death but was present or detectable in the deceased (Wang et al., 2020).
Medical intervention might be an appropriate state to take since alcohol-related deaths have been on the rise in the United States since the end of the 1990-s. From 2011 to 2015, it is predicted that 95,000 people died each year as a result of excessive alcohol use (De Leon et al., 2020). Researchers used cross-sectional U.S. death data from 2000 to 2016 to discover that alcohol-related fatalities increased by 77 percent over that time (De Leon et al., 220).
Between 2013 and 2016, the number of fatalities among women increased the most (De Leon et al., 220). Among all racial groups, American Indians and Alaskan Natives had the greatest rates of alcohol-related death. Overall, people between the ages of 55 and 64 had the highest incidence of alcohol-related fatalities (De Leon et al., 220). This demographical and social background might be instrumental in reviewing the available literature in search of models and observations that would be usable for the intervention program.
The first article reviewed concerns the prevention techniques of screening and behavioral counseling, attempting to solve the issue of alcoholism before it becomes relevant for the article subjects. According to the article “Screening and behavioral counselling interventions to reduce unhealthy alcohol use in adolescents and adults,” adults, especially pregnant women, benefit somewhat from screening and short behavioral therapy treatments for harmful alcohol consumption (“Screening and behavioral counseling interventions,” 2018). Screening and short behavioral therapy therapies for unhealthy alcohol consumption in teenagers have inadequate data to determine the balance of benefits and hazards.
Additionally, adults 18 years and older, including pregnant women, should be screened for unhealthy alcohol use in primary care settings, according to the USPSTF (U.S. Preventive Services Task Force), and those who participate in risky or hazardous drinking should get short behavioral therapy treatments to help them quit. The USPSTF concluded that monitoring indicators of alcohol consumption in adolescents aged 12-17 years are not reasonable (“Screening and behavioral counseling interventions,” 2018). The problem of alcoholism needs a collective solution and requires the implementation of not only medical but also social, pedagogical, and legal measures.
The second article reviewed the potential intervention plans was also focused on the preventive measures but picked adolescents as a part of its target group. “Screening and behavioral counselling interventions to reduce unhealthy alcohol use in adolescents and adults” prioritizes early identification of the issue. Adult screening devices that can successfully detect persons with unhealthy alcohol use are available in primary care, and counseling treatments in those who screen positive are related to decreases in unhealthy alcohol consumption. There was no proof that these actions had unforeseen negative consequences.
Alcohol abuse can aggravate or cause a variety of medical disorders that are typically seen in primary care, including neurologic, reproductive, cardiovascular, or muscle issues. Many popular prescription and over-the-counter drugs interact adversely with alcohol. Screening and counseling to minimize harmful alcohol consumption may assist in preventing negative health consequences and the development of more severe kinds of harmful use (O’Connor et al., 2018). As research was conducted in part among teenagers, this study might potentially be replicated by the hosts in a variety of settings. It also provides access to a demographic that is relatively underrepresented in studies on alcoholism or serial alcohol consumption.
The third article chosen analyses the anatomy and internal chemistry of alcohol addiction and therefore involves a rather unusual perspective on the matter. It analyses the inner workings of an alcoholic’s body and therefore provides a valuable medical insight. In 2016, alcohol was responsible for 2.2 percent of female fatalities and 6.8 percent of male deaths, with 2.3 percent of female DALYs and 8.9 percent of male DALYs (O’Connor et al., 2018).
Alcohol use disorder puts people at risk for anxiety, depression, decreased cognition, and illicit substance use. Alcohol freely enters the gastrointestinal tract, circulatory and nervous system and affects the liver, brain, and kidneys, which causes increased mortality among alcoholics. As a priority method of treating alcoholism, European doctors recommend using methods of psychological influence; psychologists use various methods of personality change, for example, cognitive therapy. The article is named “Alcohol addiction, gut microbiota, and alcoholism treatment: A review” and can therefore be useful for designing an intervention.
Conclusion
In conclusion, alcoholism in Miami Gardens is a problem on both national and individual levels. Interventions for it should be designed with the utmost care to avoid any double meanings or unfortunate implications when introducing them. Throughout the first step of the analysis, the introduced articles on the prevention therapy and chemical subtexts of alcoholism provide a beneficial input with necessary evidence.
The findings presented them will allow activists to design a better and more inclusive rehabilitation facility alongside some other measures against the alcoholism epidemic in the area. Alcohol is the same drug, only legal and easily accessible even for teenagers. It is necessary to learn how to identify problems with addiction as early as possible and carry out several preventive measures. It will not be possible to get rid of it entirely, but it is quite possible to return to the indicators that were 20 or even 30 years ago.
References
De Leon, A. N., Dvorak, R. D., Kramer, M. P., Peterson, R., Pinto, D. A., Leary, A. V., & Magri, T. D. (2020). Daily patterns of emotional functioning on drinking and nondrinking days. Alcoholism: Clinical and experimental research, 44(12), 2598-2610. Web.
O’Connor, E. A., Perdue, L. A., Senger, C.A., Rushkin, M., Patnode, C. D., Bean, S. I., & Jonas, D. E. (2018). Screening and behavioral counseling interventions to reduce unhealthy alcohol use in adolescents and adults: Updated evidence report and systematic review for the us preventive services task force. JAMA, 320(18), 1910-1928. Web.
US Preventive Services Task Force. (2018). Screening and behavioral counseling interventions to reduce unhealthy alcohol use in adolescents and adults: US preventive services task force recommendation statement. JAMA, 320(18), 1899-1909. Web.
Wang, S.-C., Chen, Y.-C., Chen, S.-J., Lee, C.-H., & Cheng, C.-M. (2020). Alcohol addiction, gut microbiota, and alcoholism treatment: A review. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21(17), 6413. Web.