Teenage Rehab - Education & Testing
As more teens engage in the use and misuse of drugs and alcohol, the available teenage rehab centers get full that they cannot be able to absorb more teens. This has resulted in a number of affected teens being put on waiting lists to wait for when treatment chances arise.
With this scenario, a number of governments and non-governmental organizations have switched strategies in how to handle teenage drug addiction and alcohol misuse. The strategy has switched to educating the teens and parents on the dangers of using illicit drugs, misusing drugs and alcohol.
Governments have come to realize that the provision of information is the only practicable way to stem the increase of substance abuse amongst teens. Given the correct information and facts, teens are better positioned to make the right choices in their lives. The following topics form part of the education process:
- Substance abuse - This is the introductory part of the education process and aims to inform teens and their parents on the substances that are commonly abused by teens. These are common drugs that teens may unknowingly misuse without knowing their dependency nature.
- The addiction state - This introduces teens and their parents to know the state at which a teen becomes addicted. Behavior change and other addiction effects are deeply explored to make teens be aware of the dangers they are likely to face if they misuse drugs.
- Addiction effects - This part of the education process is intended to make the teens and their parents be aware of the impacts the misuse of drugs has on teens' mental, physical, spiritual and overall development.
- Treatment options - This part provides teens and parents with information on the available treatment options, especially to teens already involved in doing drugs.
- Relapse prevention - This is one of the most important parts of the education process. Some teens go back to doing drugs after receiving treatment. This part of the education process informs the teens and parents on the factors that can make a teen relapse and ways to deal with such factors.
Overall, the education process is intended to stop the fast increasing incidents of drug and alcohol misuse amongst teenagers.
Random drug testing has also been found to stem misuse of drugs amongst teens. In a study undertaken by researchers at Oregon Health & Sciences University, teens subjected to random drug tests were found to be four times less likely to use illicit drugs or misuse common drugs compared to those teens not subjected to tests. Although the study elicited negative reactions from stakeholders, it has helped a great deal in curbing the use of drugs by teens.
Many schools have now taken necessary steps and included regular random drug tests as part of normal school routine. The random tests have become useful in detecting drug misuse at an early stage at which a teen can be helped easily before he/she gets deeply involved in the same.
However, those mainly tested are athlete teens whose blood samples provide optimum conditions for testing. The use of education and random drug testing can go a long way in ensuring that only serious teen addiction cases end up in teenage rehab centers as drug and alcohol misuse can be detected early and adequate treatment sought.