SBA Reflective Journal (5B17) PDF

Topic: Evaluating public education and services by Substance Abuse Service and giving suggestions to them for improving their public education to teenagers and services for vulnerable groups. Background Information We went to the Substance Abuse Clinic in Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital (P...

Topic: Evaluating public education and services by Substance Abuse Service and giving suggestions to them for improving their public education to teenagers and services for vulnerable groups. Background Information We went to the Substance Abuse Clinic in Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital (PYNEH) on 26th January. The Department of Psychiatry of PYNEH oversees the Substance Abuse Clinic, which provides various services like Occupational Therapy and integrated services focused on different health aspects besides physical. Their mission is to help people with addiction problems with alcohol or drugs, their target patients are psychotropic patients of all ages. The Department of Psychiatry has collaborated with other kinds of services to promote holistic health to their patients, like the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals (TWSGHs) and CROSS Centre. Field Learning Activities The first location was at the Specialist Out-patient Block (PYNEH), where we had a presentation and Q&A session in the briefing room. The nurses and psychiatrist from PYNEH gave a presentation and showed the statistics of drug users, including the reasons behind it. The nurse from the Department of Psychiatry showed the process of administrating patients, it is noted that they also had part-timers and a multidisciplinary team to take care of the patients. They exhibited the various types of testing kits they conduct on their patients. They provide psychiatric inpatient services and inpatient group therapy which is also a collab with other partners. The inpatient group therapy consists of motivational interviewing, relapse prevention, and skill development. Project E was introduced, it is designated to cater overall needs of drug abusers and provide financial support and funding for various anti-drug projects, it was part of the Beat Drugs Fund Program established by the Hong Kong government. Project E supplies early intervention and continuation of care, including weekly group activities. The professionals 1 in this project are occupational therapists & specialty nurses, etc. Their services are mainly focused on the social and mental aspects of health. Next are social workers from TWGHs and the ex-addict presentation, Zivan shared her story and I noticed the main factors that contributed to her drug abuse. The family’s influence which most of her family members were drug abusers and the high availability of drugs played big roles in her life, she felt hopeless due to the lack of social support and network. This led her to become an addict at 15 years old. Nonetheless, she has received help from TWGHs and is currently doing better. Lastly, a video on addiction was played. A psychiatrist from PYNEH showed us data on dual diagnoses related to mental illness and disorders. A Q&A session and a small tour of PYNEH were held, and we got to see the consultation room and observational room. Reflection The recent data containing drug abusers' data from the Narcotic Division, Security Bureau shows that in the first 3 quarters of 2022, around 34.5% of people aged 16-20 first took the drugs. This specific age group increased to 36.2% in 2023 later on. To my understanding, I believe that this input proves that drugs are still an issue among teenagers and social services don’t seem useful. PYNEH did have services that may have reduced the numbers to some degree yet lacked in certain areas for teen drug abusers. To begin with, the first good thing about the service was the inpatient group therapy provided by PYNEH, the inpatient group therapy compromise of motivational interviewing, relapse prevention, and skill development. This is good for the patients who could be at any 2 stages of the change model which are Pre-contemplation or Contemplation. Relapse prevention can assist the patient with identifying their triggers to remain in action & maintenance stages respectively. Another service mentioned was skill development, which aids the patient with their problem-solving skills which are related to risk management, patients are trained to learn how to 2 solve their problem and the services are giving empowerment to this kind of target. In the method, PYNEH uses one of the action means from the Ottawa Charter which is “Develop personal skills”. The services stated that it is to achieve overall needs as there is pharmaceutical care, so patients' physical needs are being fulfilled. In this area, the services help satisfy patients' needs in Maslow’s Hierarchy of Human Needs. Physiological needs are met with the pharmaceutical care provided by PYNEH, Esteem needs are satisfied as patients will gain self-confidence and self-respect with the empowerment from the services. Another good thing was a well-integrated service named Project E which was mainly focused on social aspects. Project E has occupational therapy that helps the patients find purpose in their lives by addressing meaningful everyday activities. This is good for patients as it helps them with self- esteem needs stated in Maslow's Hierarchy. Project E follows some of the Ottawa Charter action means: “Develop personal skills” and “Create a supportive environment”. This helps them to find out their strengths and interests for their recovery, the service is to redesign their lifestyle so that the patients can have control over their decisions after rehabilitation. Patients can create their social networks and gain practical assistance, which helps patients as their environment will support them with their mental health. The weekly group activities hosted by Project E can fulfill their emotional and social needs, this aligns with the action "Strengthen community action" from Ottawa Charter. Strengths also come with weaknesses. Initially, the public education felt hurried. I understand that we did not have enough time to go through the PowerPoints, the information they provided was abundant and it was difficult for most students to comprehend it. We were unable to inquire more about the data and ask them to elaborate, the PowerPoints had loads of information that we had to take notes quickly. Another detriment is the social services provided by the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals, it is mentioned that the social workers would go to ethnic minorities places and promote the services. They lack in achieving social needs with non-Chinese since there are fewer services for the ethnic 3 minority communities, it’s only applicable to people who mainly know Chinese. They lack accessibility of services for ethnic minorities. For example, some ethnic minorities may feel confused and helpless because of language barriers and may not reach out for help. According to the Narcotic Division statistics, there were about 7.9% of drug abusers that were non-Chinese, which later on increased to 8.5%. This showcased the underlying problem of the language barrier and the lack of social services being provided to them. So, my first suggestion for the public education provided by PYNEH would be to make the public education material more appealing and understandable for students and teenagers. PYNEH should elaborate more on the data they have provided for us by telling the reasons why the numbers changed, they should also detail their services on specifically how they help with patients' needs. This can form more understanding towards the drug abusers and their minds, the public education can be better if we could experiment with PYNEH inpatient group therapy to grasp the process and how the Stages of Change Model is applied. With this, we can retain the information of the service's effectiveness. Furthermore, we can view how the Health Belief Model theory is applied and gain a deeper understanding of how drug addicts go through the likelihood of action. Letting students attempt motivational interviewing could provide more understanding and perspective of Change Model theory. Another suggestion is more accessible services for vulnerable groups. According to the data given by the Narcotics Division, the percentage of ethnic minorities affiliated with drug abuse in the first part of 2023 has increased from 91.5% to 92.7% in the same year. Instead of visiting places where ethnic minorities reside, the social workers can hire a person who is part of the community and a reliable translator. In this way, the person can relay information to several tight social networks. This is quite advantageous and handy; the ethnic minorities can receive aid during the process of administrating the drug abusers. Substance Abuse Services may also increase their social media presence as the young generation is docile by social media. Currently, their social media presence seems to be less 4 prominent. By this approach, the ethnic minorities are less likely to be overwhelmed by the language barriers. This action means is from the Ottawa Charter which is “Creating supportive environments”, the ethnic minorities could be more open towards the services provided by PYNEH. Conclusion PYNEH and their collaboration partners are trying their best to lower the number of drug abusers, it is shown in their services and public education. However, they can certainly improve their social services for ethnic minorities by reaching out to various communities and helping them to alert ethnic minorities by giving out key information on drug abuse issues and public education for teenagers through effective planned public education. 5 Reference Booklets: Booklet 1 HMSC 健康管理與社會關懷 Health Management and Social Care (edb.gov.hk) 02_Booklet_1_E_Individual_Health.pdf (edb.gov.hk) Topic 5 HMSC 健康管理與社會關懷 Health Management and Social Care (edb.gov.hk) Topic 7 HMSC 健康管理與社會關懷 Health Management and Social Care (edb.gov.hk) Topic 9 HMSC 健康管理與社會關懷 Health Management and Social Care (edb.gov.hk) 09_Booklet_9_E_Community_Health.pdf (edb.gov.hk) Topic 15D HMSC 健康管理與社會關懷 Health Management and Social Care (edb.gov.hk) 17_Booklet_15D_E_Issues.pdf (edb.gov.hk) Hospital information: https://hkec.ha.org.hk/pyneh/internet/en/our-services/psychiatry.html https://www.nd.gov.hk/en/beat.html https://www.google.com/maps/place/Pamela+Youde+Nethersole+Eastern+Hospital/@22.269354,114. 2363674,19.5z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x340401872071aac7:0xc7ab9f250e38d101!8m2!3d22.2695993!4 d114.2362653!16zL20vMGdfbGh0?entry=ttu Statistics: Statistical figures of drug abuse and drug situation in Hong Kong in first quarter of 2023 (info.gov.hk) Narcotics Division, Security Bureau - Main Charts/Tables (nd.gov.hk) t19.pdf (nd.gov.hk) First abuse by drug abusers by ages t22.pdf (nd.gov.hk) Drug abusers by ethnicity Research https://www.narconon.org/blog/addiction-relates-to-lack-of-life-skills.html https://youtu.be/tdJAQZxJ6vY?si=wD_GtVTZ2VW7E_pt https://www.studenthealth.gov.hk/english/health/health_sdsa/health_sdsa_usa.html https://www.swd.gov.hk/en/pubsvc/young/cat_dtrs/ 6