Screening for the Severity of Illicit Drug Use among the “Tokhang” Responders in the Philippines: Basis for Community-Based Drug Rehabilitation Program
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24203/ajhss.v8i4.6213Keywords:
community-based rehabilitation program, SBIRT, severity of drug use, WHO- ASSIST toolAbstract
Substance use has turned into a worldwide phenomenon influencing practically every country. Alcohol and other drugs are rapidly becoming a problem for public health. The primary purpose of this study is to screen the severity levels of drug use among “Tokhang” (Cebuano word that implies Tok-tok Hangyo, where police staff knocks the doors of an affirmed user or pusher, asking him/her politely to surrender to the police so that he/she will be checked for further assessment) responders in the municipality of Don Carlos, Philippines. The study results will provide baseline data on the severity of drug use among the responders. It is vital to know the severity level so that appropriate interventions will be formulated. This study utilized a descriptive-correlational survey design to determine the relationship between the sociodemographic profile and World Health Organization-Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (WHO-ASSIST) among the “Tokhang” responders. The majority of the Tokhang respondents were male comprising 999 (99.3 %) of the study population. In terms of marital status, 467 respondents were married (45.5%), 377 were single (37.5%), and 170 belonged in cohabitation (16.9%). In terms of educational attainment, 338 respondents reached high school level (33.7%.) and were 258 high school graduates (25.7%). Tobacco products has a (M= 19.17) followed with alcoholic beverages with (M=17.89), and lastly, amphetamine-type stimulants such as shabu were rated as (M=3.64) and described as moderate risk level, respectively. The initial results of the study will provide the basis for the community-based rehabilitation program for low and moderate risk drug use and moderate to high alcohol and tobacco use among the Tokhang responders. The Brief Intervention for Referral Treatment will be followed to implement and evaluate the program focusing on these substances.
References
Njord, Levi, et al. “Characterizing health behaviors and infectious disease prevalence among Filipino street children.” International journal of adolescent medicine and health vol. 20. no. 3, pp.367-374, 2008.
Kulsudjarit, K. “Drug problem in southeast and southwest Asia0”. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, vol. 1025 no. 1, pp. 446-457.doi:10.1196/annals.1316.055, 2004.
Thompson, M. R. “Bloodied democracy: Duterte and the death of liberal reformism in the Philippines.” Journal of Current Southeast Asian Affairs, vol. 35 no. 3, pp. 39-68, 2016.
Hock, R. S., Hindin, M. J., Bass, J. K., Surkan, P. J., Bradshaw, C. P., & Mendelson, T. “Parenting styles and emerging adult drug use in Cebu, the Philippines.” International Journal of Culture and Mental Health, vol. 9 no. 2, pp. 108-119, 2016.
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). Annual Report 2013.
United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (2017) World drug report 2017
Elek, E., Miller-Day, M., & Hecht, M. L. (2006). “Influences of personal, injunctive, and descriptive norms on early adolescent substance use.” Journal of Drug Issues, 36(1), 147-172
Esplanada, J. E. “Chinese drug syndicates behind drug trade in Philippines.” Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved from http://globalnation.inquirer.net/41837, 2012/.
Abuse, Substance. "Mental Health Services Administration, Results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings, NSDUH Series H-41, HHS Publication No.(SMA) 11-4658." Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration pp. 201, 2011, 2010.
Humeniuk, Rachel, Robert Ali, World Health Organization, and ASSIST Phase II Study Group. "Validation of the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) and pilot brief intervention [electronic resource]: A technical report of phase II findings of the WHO ASSIST Project." 2006.
Njord, L., Merrill, R. M., Njord, R., Lindsay, R., & Pachano, J. D. “Drug use among street children and non-street children in the Philippines.” Asia Pacific Journal of Public Health, vol. 22 no. 2, pp. 203-211, 2010.
World Drug Report, 2018.
Ghazal, P. “Rising trend of substance abuse in Pakistan: a study of sociodemographic profiles of patients admitted to rehabilitation centres.” Public Health, vol. 167, pp. 34-37, 2019.
Humeniuk, R., Dennington, V., & Ali, R. “The effectiveness of a brief intervention for illicit drugs linked to the alcohol, smoking and substance involvement screening test (ASSIST) in primary health care settings: A technical report of phase III findings of the WHO ASSIST randomized controlled trial.” Geneva: World Health Organization, 2008.
Boddiger, D. “Drug abuse in older US adult’s worries experts.” The Lancet, vol. 372 no. 9650, pp. 1622, 2008.
Maree, R. D., Marcum, Z. A., Saghafi, E., Weiner, D. K., & Karp, J. F. “A systematic review of opioid and benzodiazepine misuse in older adults.” The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol. 24 no. 11, pp. 949-963, 2016.
Zhang, C., Brook, J. S., Leukefeld, C. G., & Brook, D. W. “Developmental Trajectories of Religious Service Attendance: Predictors of Nicotine Dependence and Alcohol Dependence/Abuse in Early Midlife.” Journal of Religion and Health, pp. 1-14, 2019.
Lok, S. “Religious coping, motivation and symptoms of substance use disorder: A match made in heaven?” (Master's thesis), 2019.
Chen, Ruijia, Ronald C. Kessler, Ekaterina Sadikova, Amanda NeMoyer, Nancy A. Sampson, Kiara Alvarez, Corrie L. Vilsaint et al. "Racial and ethnic differences in individual-level and area-based socioeconomic status and 12-month DSM-IV mental disorders." Journal of psychiatric research vol.119, pp. 48-59, 2019.
Martin, C. C. 2019. “High Socioeconomic Status Predicts Substance Use and Alcohol Consumption in US Undergraduates.” Substance Use & Misuse, vol. 54 no.6, pp.1035-1043, 2019.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2020 Narcie Faith Pilon Amista, Baronese Peters
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
- Papers must be submitted on the understanding that they have not been published elsewhere (except in the form of an abstract or as part of a published lecture, review, or thesis) and are not currently under consideration by another journal published by any other publisher.
- It is also the authors responsibility to ensure that the articles emanating from a particular source are submitted with the necessary approval.
- The authors warrant that the paper is original and that he/she is the author of the paper, except for material that is clearly identified as to its original source, with permission notices from the copyright owners where required.
- The authors ensure that all the references carefully and they are accurate in the text as well as in the list of references (and vice versa).
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
- The journal/publisher is not responsible for subsequent uses of the work. It is the author's responsibility to bring an infringement action if so desired by the author.