Substance Abuse Assessment and Intervention Plan

For your Final Project, you will apply the information you have learned in this course to critically analyze a specific case study (refer to the Week 1 Final Project area or the Course Info area under Course Home to download the case study) and develop a Substance Abuse Assessment and Intervention Plan based on it. Your Final Project must explain the choices you made in your plan and be supported with scholarly references from the professional literature (e.g., Addictive Behaviors, Drug and Alcohol Review, Journal of Child & Adolescent Substance Abuse, Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, Substance Abuse).

Your Final Project should include all of the following sections:

1. Substances abused and implications of abuse

2. Biological predispositions

3. Family considerations

4. Cultural considerations

5. Therapy model

6. Assessment and diagnosis

7. Treatment plan and intervention strategies

8. Ethical and legal considerations

The Learning Resources in the course and the Discussion and Application assignments all will assist you in completing the Final Project.

Your Final Project must be presented via one of the following options:

• A 6- to 10-page (not including references), double-spaced, APA-formatted paper that is submitted to the online classroom

All Final Projects, regardless of format:

• Must include a minimum of five references (in addition to any course readings you may wish to reference)
• Must include each of the eight required sections
• Must explain the choices you made to create the Substance Abuse Assessment and Intervention Plan and, where necessary, make clear how the concepts presented in the course relate to the plan
• Are graded on a 20-point scale and are worth 20% of your final grade

Although the Final Project is not to be submitted until Day 4 of Week 11, you should become familiar with the case study and project requirements and have them in mind as you proceed through the course.

The Final Project will be evaluated according to all four indicators in the Application Assignment and Final Paper Writing Rubric located in the Course Info area. Be sure that the Final Project is written using APA format.

Information on scholarly writing may be found in the APA Publication Manual (6th ed.) and at the Walden Writing Center website. Also, refer to the Code of Conduct and Academic Integrity section of the Guidelines and Policies area of the course navigation menu.

The Final Project is due on Day 4 of Week 11. Refer to the Week 11 Final Project area for submission details.

Case Study Lisa

Lisa (32) is a heterosexual-identified Mexican American female and mother of twin boys (8) who has come to your agency to address substance abuse concerns at the suggestion of her defense attorney. In your initial session with Lisa, you learn that she began using marijuana and drinking alcohol at age 12, using cocaine at age 14, and shooting heroin at age 16. She claims that she has not used heroin in the last five years, although she continues to drink and to use methamphetamines.

She was referred to you because after a night of heavy drinking and methamphetamine use, Lisa had an argument with her boyfriend Charlie, pulled a knife on him, and threatened to kill him. Charlie was able to run to another room, where he called the police. Lisa attempted to stab him under the door, and finally tried to cut through the door, lodging the knife in the wood. Frustrated, she then got in her car and left. Police stopped her several blocks away, and she was charged with her third incident of driving under the influence (DUI).At the time of the incident, her sons were at her mother’s house. In addition to facing charges for driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol, Lisa now faces the possibility of losing custody of her children.

Lisa lived in poverty her entire life, and grew up in the economically disadvantaged west side of San Antonio. Her father, who died of a drug overdose, used heroin as long as Lisa could remember, and beat Lisa’s mother. Lisa frequently intervened. Lisa’s father had wanted Lisa to be “tough,” so he and his brothers had her and her male cousins box each other while the men bet on which child would win. As Lisa grew older, she learned that her survival depended on fighting. She joined a gang in middle school, and has remained connected to the gang ever since.

Lisa blacks out at times when she experiences rage. Her blackouts may last from several minutes to several hours. Lisa has always experienced blackouts, although, because she has used drugs and alcohol nearly every day for 20 years, she is unable to tell you much about the correlation between the blackouts and her drug and alcohol abuse. When she recounts this last incident with Charlie, however, she shares that she acted “just like my dad did to my mom,” and that the last thing she remembers in her fight with Charlie was “my dad’s voice getting really loud,” even though her father has been deceased for 10 years.

• Course Text: Stevens, P. W., & Smith, R. L. (2018). Substance abuse counseling: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
  • Chapter 1, “Introduction to Substance Abuse Counseling” (pp. 1-25)
• Article: Bullington, B. (2004). Drug policy reform and its detractors: The United States as the elephant in the closet. Journal of Drug Issues, 34(3), 687–721. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
• Article:Parry, C. D. H., Plüddemann, A., & Myers, B. J. (2005).Heroin treatment demand in South Africa: Trends from two large metropolitan sites (January 1997–December 2003). Drug & Alcohol Review, 24(5), 419–423. Retrieved from the Walden Library databases
• Web Sites
  • American Counseling Association (ACA). ACA Code of Ethics. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.counseling.org/docs/ethics/2014-aca-code-of-ethics.pdf?sfvrsn=4
  • National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Approaches to Drug Abuse Counseling: A Psychotherapeutic and Skills-Training Approach to the Treatment of Drug Addiction (Sections 4 and 5 only)
    http://archives.drugabuse.gov/ADAC/ADAC13.htmll
• Course Text: Stevens, P. W., & Smith, R. L. (2018). Substance abuse counseling: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
  • Chapter 3, “The Major Substances of Use and Their Effects on the Brain and Body” (pp. 49-75)
  • Chapter 4, “Etiology of Substance Abuse: Why People Use” (pp. 97-101 only)
  • Article: Prescott, C. A., Madden, P. A. F., & Stallings, M. C. (2006). Challenges in genetic studies of the etiology of substance use and substance use disorders: Introduction to the special issue. Behavior Genetics, 36(4), 473-482.
    Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
  • Article: Saxon, A. J., Oreskovich, M. R., & Brkanac, Z. (2005). Genetic determinants of addiction to opioids and cocaine. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 13(4), 218-232.
    Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.
  • Course Text: Stevens, P. W., & Smith, R. L. (2018). Substance abuse counseling: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
    • Chapter 6, “Treatment Setting and Treatment Planning” (pp. 143-159)
    • Chapter 7, “Individual Treatment” (pp. 166-183)
    • Chapter 8, “Group Treatment in the Continuum of Care” (pp. 185-201 only)

Media

• Video: Laureate Education, Inc. (Executive Producer). (2008). Substance abuse counseling: Counseling techniques and treatment planning.Baltimore: Author.
  • with Dr. Tom Cargiulo
  • Readings
  • Course Text: Stevens, P. W., & Smith, R. L. (2018). Substance abuse counseling: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc.
    • Chapter 9, “Family Treatment” (pp. 208-223 only)
  • Web Sites
  • American Counseling Association (ACA). ACA Code of Ethics. (2014). Retrieved fromhttp://www.counseling.org/docs/ethics/2014-aca-code-of-ethics.pdf?sfvrsn=4