Public Health Assignment: Prescription Drug Overdose In United States

Question

Task:
In this public health assignment we have been looking at the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. You can choose an important public health issue that relates to your home country and be prepared to answer questions to test your understanding of issues and concepts relating to the SDGs.

Answer

Question 1. Choose one of the public health issues in this public health assignment from any country and explain why you choose the public health issue and the country? Why it is the important public health issue in the country?

The public health issue chosen is prescription drug overdose in United States. It has been a significant problem. This public health issue is highly prevalent in the United States. The evidential facts show that health care providers prescribed nearly three times more opioid pain relievers per person in states where the prescription was high.Prescription drugs are controlled substances that are provided to the patient only through a prescription. Due to its addictive effects, the patients abuse the substance and over use the same (Florence, et al. 2016). Unfortunately, the stronger and quicker effect of the medications is the same characteristics that make opioids potentially addictive.

References
Florence, C., Luo, F., Xu, L., & Zhou, C. (2016). The economic burden of prescription opioid overdose, abuse and dependence in the United States, 2013. Medical care, 54(10), 901.

Question 2. Write any 3 SDGs which are related to the chosen public health issue and explain how and the success factors.

There are relevant sustainable development goals formulated relative to the prescription drug overdose public health issue. They are as follows;

Strengthening the prevention and treatment for substance abuse.
Drug use treatment and reintegration attempts through evidence-based approaches (Obama, 2010).
Reinforcing drug policies to limit prescription drug availability to those who misuse drugs.

The sustainable development goals are developed with the key objective of ensuring healthy lives for people of all age groups.As the epitome of the new paradigm, growing tolerance to the drug is beginning to emerge among prominent conservative voices. The purposes behind the high predominance of prescription drug abuse differ dependent on age, sexual orientation and different elements, however likely among them is straightforward entry to drugs. Helpless information about the addictive properties of prescription narcotics, and the recognition that prescription drugs are less destructive than illicit drugs are other factors that possibly contribute to the problem(Obama, 2010).While the misuse of prescription drugs affects many people in the United States, certain groups of the population, such as the young and older adults, may be particularly at risk.

References
Obama, B. (2010). National security strategy of the United States (2010). Diane Publishing.

Question 3. Write any two programs which are carried to address the chosen problems and the success factors.

National Drug Early Warning System – National Institute on Drug Abuse is United States research institute of the federal government. The institution has launched several programs over time against substance abuse, and prevention. National Drug Early Warning System is an innovative program developed by NIDA for supervising the potential prescription drug abuse, and identify the patterns and trends associated with the drug misuse.The program is an information exchange mechanism created in order to mitigate and reduce the impact of prescription drugs abuse(Artigiani, et al. 2017). It supports timely detection, evaluation of risk and generation of reliable information directed to the related authorities and the community in general regarding drug misuse.
Success factor of the program is the early identification of drug abuse as well as addressing the use of other psychoactive substances which is a serious public health problem in US.It strives to detect and disseminate information regarding the fatal and non-fatal consequences secondary to the use and abuse of drugs that may generate a public health problem (Artigiani, et al. 2017). This information is in turn used to prevent the crisis.
Prescription Drug Overdose: Prevention for States–Center for Disease Control has developed this program to prevent fight the ongoing abuse of prescription drugs.The program has prescription drug monitoring, health interventions, policies against substance abuse, and a rapid response project (Robinson, et al. 2019). The program is used to monitor the performance of the program in different states and its effectiveness, 29 states are monitored under this program.
The success factors of the program are the successful attainment of safe prescription practices, prescription drug overdose, and abuse. Using the Prescription Drug Surveillance Programs (or PDMPs) which are electronic databases maintained by the states to track prescriptions and controlled prescription drug sales.It is an important tool for identifying and preventing prescription drug abuse (Robinson, et al. 2019). While current research on the impact of these programs shows mixed results, the program has been effective in some states linked to lower rates of prescription and opioid overdoses.

References
Artigiani, E., Wish, E., & O'Brien, M. (2017, November). National Drug Early Warning System. In APHA 2017 Annual Meeting & Expo (Nov. 4-Nov. 8). American Public Health Association.

Robinson, A., Christensen, A., & Bacon, S. (2019). From the CDC: the prevention for states program: preventing opioid overdose through evidence-based intervention and innovation. Journal of safety research, 68, 231-237.

Question 4. Why partnership with global, national and local level is important to solve the chose public health issue? Write in brief 300

Global support is important as the prescription drug crisis is a global problem. The only difference is the intensity of the problem prevalence in different countries.The problem of drug demand in the United States through global support is anticipated to be addressed by working with other countries such as China, and nations in Latin America (Kuehn, 2007). Collaboratively, the countries strive to problem of the drugs from which those substances originate.

At national level, the government is consistently allocating funds to be used at the state and federal levels to fight addiction of prescription drugs.Department of Labor provides grants to some of the 50 states in the country to facilitate the search for employment of people with addiction (Li, et al. 2014).

Local law enforcement and public health authorities have long emphasized reducing drug use among the nation's youth. To this end, the United States government monitors drug use among youth of the nation as a whole (Fink, et al. 2018). Data on drug use is collected annually tracking various health risk behaviorsassociated with is drug use.

Some notable collaboration are Action Missouri, American College Health Association, USAGov, Drug Enforcement Administration, National Institute on Drug Abuse etc. They work along with federal agencies and national organizations. They strive to prevent substance use and fills in as the impetus for prevention at the state level, engaging individuals and supporting organizations to advance protected, solid, and without drug networks(Li, et al. 2014).It underscores on drug prevention and strategy making focused on creating procedures to prevent drug use, and advance continued recuperation(Fink, et al. 2018).

Additionally, they build the limit of people, associations, and network alliances taking a shot at substance abuse prevention. They cooperate with the international associates to make more advantageous people, families and networks through prevention, intercession, quality treatment, and recuperation support (Kuehn, 2007). Further, they center on taking out the antagonistic effect of drug use on kids and families by raising open mindfulness, driving open approaches at the national, state and local levels, advancing suitable, successful and available training and prevention benefits and encouraging and improving proficient information and comprehension.

References
Fink, D. S., Schleimer, J. P., Sarvet, A., Grover, K. K., Delcher, C., Castillo-Carniglia, A., ... & Cerdá, M. (2018). Association between prescription drug monitoring programs and nonfatal and fatal drug overdoses: a systematic review. Annals of internal medicine, 168(11), 783-790.

Kuehn, B. M. (2007). Prescription drug abuse rises globally. Jama, 297(12), 1306-1306.

Li, G., Brady, J. E., Lang, B. H., Giglio, J., Wunsch, H., & DiMaggio, C. (2014). Prescription drug monitoring and drug overdose mortality. Injury epidemiology, 1(1), 9.

Question 5. What are the barriers for the Related SDGs which you have chosen in que 2? Any two SDGs.

The barriers of the SDGs are that;

Strengthening the prevention and treatment for substance abuse:
Barriers to access to treatment differ according to the main drug of abuse with patients with prescription abuse. This apparent unconcern with respect to cocaine use is corroborated in the analysis of barriers to treatment.There is no awareness of disease or associated problems by users of substances. The fear generated by the symptoms of subsequent withdrawal syndrome makes it more difficult to give up consumption and, therefore, resistance to change increases.As an individual's disposition, what matters is to develop a resilience that allows the subject to overcome the barriers imposed by the conditions of origin(Jones, et al. 2013). The other fragmentation of the social comes from the barriers that separate the adult from the young, as if they were subjects living distant and opposite worlds.
Reinforcing drug policies to limit prescription drug availability to those who misuse drugs:
Drug prohibition has made drug trafficking a very worthwhile business. This is on the grounds that the cost of an unlawful substance is resolved more by the expense of its appropriation than the expense of its creation. On account of cocaine, the cost of the last item is more than one hundred times higher than the underlying one, the coca leaf. The premium created by the denial speaks to 90 percent or a greater amount of the retail cost of an opiate drug (Appel, et al. 2004). The expenses of denial fall lopsidedly on creating nations related with drug production.

References
Appel, P. W., Ellison, A. A., Jansky, H. K., &Oldak, R. (2004). Barriers to enrollment in drug abuse treatment and suggestions for reducing them: opinions of drug injecting street outreach clients and other system stakeholders. Public health assignment The American journal of drug and alcohol abuse, 30(1), 129-153.

Jones, C. M., Mack, K. A., &Paulozzi, L. J. (2013). Pharmaceutical overdose deaths, united states, 2010. Jama, 309(7), 657-659.

Orlandi, M. A., Dozier, C. E., & Marta, M. A. (1990). Computer-assisted strategies for substance abuse prevention: Opportunities and barriers. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 58(4), 425.

Tags: critical analysis health care united states

NEXT SAMPLE