Small Group Objectives and Agenda
The small group for substance abuse for middle school children will pursue the objectives aimed at improving students’ understanding of harms of substance abuse and how to deal with it. In particular, the educational objective pursues children’s education on the harms of substance use both for health and social life. Moreover, the behavior-adjusting objective will allow fro providing practice for healthy behaviors and in a combination with communicative objective will allow for helping students cope with conflict resolution and peer pressure when facing substance use situations or threats (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMSHA], 2021). Thus, in accord with the objectives, the small group sessions will have the following agenda: small group conversations, skill training, communicative practice, and case simulations or situational role-play.
Materials and assessment tools
The materials that will be needed for small group sessions include some stories to exemplify decision-making problems in adolescents concerning peer pressure and substance use. In addition, statistics handouts on substance use harms, guidelines for avoidance of substance use, and conflict resolution algorithm sheet will be used to provide the members of the group with necessary information and practical guidance. As for the assessment tools that will be applied to identify children’s skills and knowledge, communicative skill self-assessment tools, surveys and questionnaires on conflict resolution, peer pressure, and overall substance use outcomes before and after the sessions will be used.
Mock Survey Recommendations
To make more informed recommendations based on the survey conducted among students, it is important to retrieve more data on the number of surveyed students to assess the applicability and feasibility of the results. Also, it is important to retrieve more information on students’ needs in other areas than presented in the survey. As for the micro level support, peer collaborations should be recommended as an effective support source since the students have the same concerns and might share experience. At a macro level, teachers might become mentors to guide the improvements of students. Based on the survey results, the students lack self-efficacy training and emotion regulation training, which need to be intensified.
When recommending responsibilities distribution independently, it is essential to address the issues of the lowest development rate (self efficacy and emotion regulation) with precision. It might be achieved though group mentors’ responsibility for psychological trainings on a regular basis and mentor assistants’ responsibilities for skill assessment and reporting. In campus, it is essential for teachers to work collaboratively with the psychologist to ensure timely addressing of students’’ issues. Monetary funding for the collaborations should be allocated, as well as volunteer work of mentor assistants might be initiated.
Reference
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2021). 5 conversation goals. Web.