Introduction
Drug abuse refers to the use of illegal substances or misusing drugs prescribed by a Doctor in excess amounts thus resulting into substantial medical harm and misery due the repeated usage of and overdependence on the substance. (MedicineNet.com).
It is the saddest thing to see someone expose themselves to the dangers of drug abuse. I say expose themselves because, if at all someone is not abusing drugs because of a mental or psychological problem, then it just a matter of personal choice for an individual to abuse or not to abuse drugs.
Discussion
During my time in high school and college I saw many students who became victims of drug abuse. In my community I have met people who are completely destroyed by drugs financially, emotionally, psychologically and even socially. It has broken families. It is not pleasing to see the potential in the youth of our society to be wasted. The problems brought by drug abuse are enormous, compounded by the financial implications especially for those in low income bracket.
In college I joined a guidance and counseling association where we were trained in counseling our peers in the college against drug abuse. During the holidays I also joined a guidance and counseling organization which is also a member of the Community Anti Drug Coalitions of America. In those organizations I met different people with various experiences of drug abuse. Those encounters had a big role in shaping my desire to want to help change the lives of those who had this problem of drug abuse. During my time in the above organizations we planned for various campaigns against drug abuse and held education forums for college, high school and also community drug abuse education programs. I have also been very instrumental in contributing to the newsletters produced by these organizations which aim at educating the youth and parents against drug abuse.
Through these organizations we also organized various awards and ceremonies and still do, to promote awareness of the problem of drug abuse. In order to move to a higher level with my efforts in serving my community I decided to take up the graduate education in social work. I figured out that with an increased education in this field I can be able to better understand my work and be a positions where I can be able to implement changes that affect people positively more efficiently.
Loyola University, School of Social Work has a Nonprofit Management and Philanthropy Sector Program that teaches leaders coming from both the public and private areas of philanthropy to better give service to the general society. Through this program, participants are able to acquire various skills which are pertinent to an individual involved in social work. Some of the leadership skills that one is equipped with through this program are raising of funds for use in social work, the management of non profit making organizations, planning at the strategic level of management, giving grants and donations and most of all they develop an understanding of how the charity organizations function.(Loyola University Chicago).
Loyola University School of Social Work has a great contribution towards training the leaders who are given to serving others, serving the society, mankind. The issue that I am dealing with is the counseling of the drug abuse victims. Most of the victims we meet are some of the downtrodden of the society, people who need to be helped and be reaccepted into the society so as to become productive members again. This is a task that requires professional skills in terms of management of the rehabilitation institutions in which it is carried out and of course funds for running the institutions themselves. Most of the funds for these institutions usually come from grants or donations from various organizations. It is in this aspect that the contribution of Loyola University is most needed in the support of the task I have taken.
The principles of the National Association of Social Workers are also supportive of the kind of work that I have chosen to be involved in especially in the promotion of social justice. This is in the sense that, in a society there are different people with different lifestyles and of course accompanied with different kinds of problems. There are those who are enlightened, educated and financially well off. On the other extreme we have the members of the society who are not so well educated, the poor living in the poor neighborhoods and mostly these are the people who are adversely affected by the brunt of drug abuse. They are the ones mostly exposed to the drugs and the drug dealers.
Education is a basic human right, more so when it is targeted at helping change an individual’s life, because in a situation where drug abuse is due to ignorance, the difference between the amounts of information one has on drugs can mean either life or death. Through service to the society, these principles are satisfied and by providing social justice, a responsibility for all of us to work towards helping the other less fortunate members of the society. (NASW, 2008). Through social work, the campaigns against drug abuse, the general educational forums and the counseling of the victims and final rehabilitation, social justice can be done and the rehabilitated people can be able to work and fend for themselves.
In the social work profession, there are various researches looking into different ways of how social work can be integrated into different aspects of the society. With respect to social work and the problem of substance abuse, research has been carried out in terms of investigating the relationship between drug abuse and poverty, the effects of drug abuse on the society. Some of the questions that can be used as guides in this effort are: what is the income bracket of the drug abuse victims, in which parts of the community do the drug abuse victims live, what percentage of the drug abuse victims live in the poor neighborhoods and what is the highest education level attained by the victims.
Given that there is scarcely if any, efforts directed towards alleviating poverty as a way of reducing the prevalence of drug abuse especially among the poor, I have seen that there is a way in which this can be explored and I am putting my efforts into it. My vision for my professional work is to go further into looking into the aspects of social work that I feel have been neglected. In this case I may have lots of hurdles ahead, but with promise of great achievement in my endeavors.
In order to improve the social work professions response to the issue of direct relationship between drug abuse and poverty, it will be helpful to highlight the problem in the specific areas and do a lot of awareness campaigns. Carrying out and publishing a research into the issue will also do a lot in improving the response.
During my study course in high school, I studied Biology with various topics that covered the human biology ranging from the structure of the cell and the functions, genetics, human anatomy and human physiology. Under these topics we covered drugs and their effects on the human body and reproduction. Some of the drugs that we learned about are cocaine, alcohol, nicotine, marijuana and khat (a stimulant known in some countries as miraa).
Reference
Loyola University Chicago. School of Social work. Philanthropy NMPS. 2008. Web.
Definition of Substance abuse. 2008. Web.
National Association of Social Workers. Putting Poverty on the Election Platform: The Time to Eradicate Poverty is Now. 2008. Web.
Social Work in United States. 2008. Web.