Reflection on Opioid Dependence
I must admit that the class was quite interactive, besides equipping us with the necessary skills to apply in social health work. As a clinical practitioner, I have learned that Opioid dependence should be treated as it results in medical, social, and economic challenges. According to Lincoln (2020), a framework should be established to treat the addiction or dependence both socially and medically. Whereas clinicians make use of new therapeutic approaches like cognitive behavioral therapy, there is a need to look at multifaceted treatment approaches to address opioid dependence.
Maxwell (2019) argues that physicians prescribed about 72.5 opioid pain reliever (OPR) as well as 37.7 benzodiazepine medicament in a survey of every one hundred people in America. However, pharmacological treatment like hydrocodone, codeine, morphine, methadone, and oxycodone can be vital and yet treat acute and chronic pain (Burwell, 2020). In this class, I learned the process of multifaceted treatment and its crucial role in fighting opioid dependence. The first technique is to provide educational resources for training. The materials must include recent recommendations to assist clinical workers in making crucial decisions. The second technique is to expand the use of naloxone. Naloxone reduces the cases of deaths brought about by opioid overdose. According to recent research from the National Nurses Association reveal that it is crucial to increase the use of medication-assisted treatment.
In conclusion, as a practitioner, I have dedicated my career to helping fight opioid addiction. Therefore, I have seen it necessary to focus on prevention and intervention measures. These addicts are usually mentally unstable, and clinicians need to step-up intervention measures to reduce the number of deaths related to opioid dependence. All in all, stakeholders and medical practitioners need to come together to combat opioid addiction as well.
References
Lincoln, S. (2020). Multifaceted plan to combat opioid abuse: Focus on prescriber education, naloxone use, and medication-assisted treatment.
Maxwell, P. (2019). Success in fighting opioid abuse demands multifaceted approach: Policy changes, education, community involvement play key roles.