Alcohol and drug abuse is one of the problems the adolescents in America have been dealing with for generations. However, efforts to commit to the help in overcoming this problem has been inhibited by various factors in the society. Some of the most important and influential factors in the decision to seek help on alcohol and drug abuse has been gender and race or ethnicity barriers. Data gathered from National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) has indicated that three quarter of the population registered have attitudinal barriers towards alcohol or drug use. The study has shown that women are less likely to endorse attitudinal barriers. African Americans and Latinos were less likely than Whites to endorse attitudinal barriers for alcohol problems, Latinos were less likely than Whites to endorse readiness for change barriers for alcohol and drug problems, and however, African Americans were more likely to endorse structural barriers for alcohol problems. This study finding are a wakeup call for the government to consider these factors in trying to seek an increased access to help for people with alcohol and drug abuse problems.
Rationale
Earlier researches on the underutilization of mental health services among minority groups has shed a light into the issue of perceived discrimination during service delivery, negative treatment when seeking these services and limitation in the knowledge of the available services on the same issue. Prior studies have also shown women have received a more comprehensive service in comparison to the men in America. This has been a buildup study on two other prior studies on one on factors that led to treatment seeking among the public on alcohol and drug use while the other study was on help-seeking from baseline to follow up on substance dependencies. This study aims to alienate further the factors that should be considered if there is going to be an improvement in the willingness of the public to seek help on alcohol and drug abuse problems.
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Methods
The National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) targeted civilian people living in the United States households and in group quarters. A face to face interview was conducted on 43,093 respondents who included African Americans, Latinos and whites of ages between 18 and 24 years. The data was adjusted to represent the people according to the 2000 census results.
The respondents were asked a series of questions on alcohol and drug use and their willingness to seek for help on the same. The people who qualified for the final analysis were also subjected to a series of questions involving their denial to seek help. Through this stage, their responses were classified into three distinctive groups’ namely structural barriers, attitudinal barriers and readiness for change. Structural barriers included insurance not covering for the service, not knowing where to seek help, not being able to afford the costs, not having time, and waiting time being too long among other reasons. Attitudinal barriers included embarrassments, afraid of the boss, friends or family responses, tried earlier with no success, not believing one could be helped not strong enough to handle, and did not want to go among other responses. On readiness for change include stopping on one’s own, helped by friends and family and wanting to keep drinking. This data was then analyzed and regression models carried out.
Results
80% of the sampled respondents responded by citing attitudinal barriers as their main reason for not seeking help. On ethnicity, African Americans and Latinos were more likely to cite structural barriers in seeking help for alcohol and drug abuse problems in comparison with the Whites. On attitudinal barriers, Latinos were less likely to them in comparison with the Whites. The African Americans were similarly less likely to cite these barriers though for alcohol problems.
Structural barriers were relative significant for Latino men in comparison to the Latino women for both alcohol and drug use. This was similar to the African American men compared to the African American women. Attitudinal barriers were more significant in White, African American and Latino men than in the women. However, in comparison with White men versus White women, the outcomes were reversed.
Discussion
According to this study, attitudinal barriers outweigh the structural barriers to seeking help on alcohol and substance use problems. Across all ethnic groups, women are more likely to cite attitudinal barriers. Both men and women endorse the structural barriers to these problems. A pattern has been seen on structural and attitudinal barriers of access to treatment has been largely influence by race and ethnicity. On alcoholism, both African American and Latinos endorse structural barriers more than the Whites but display a reversed trend on attitudinal barriers. However, there were limitations involving this research one being the data used was from the year 2000 which have a different reflection of the community today. Nonetheless, this study can be used to make changes to the system in trying to cope with these barriers.
Critical Thinking
Conclusively, this research indicates that racial and ethnic minorities have a high problem recognition but have limited access to treatment services just as prior studies have shown. According to the study, there is need to come up with feasible solutions on the best intervention in trying to help access alcohol and drug use treatments for both gender and across the racial and ethnical groups in the United States. It is time America takes action on these disparities stemming from differential access and utilization of healthcare services on addictions. If America needs to grow, then it should work on these shortcomings in the society so that it can eliminate these disparities in entirety.
References
Perron, B. E., Alexander-Eitzman, B., Watkins, D., Taylor, R. J., Baser, R., Neighbors, H. W., & Jackson, J. S. (2009). Ethnic differences in delays to treatment for substance use disorders: African Americans, Black Caribbeans, and Non-Hispanic Whites. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 41(4), 369-377.
