Culture and Substance Abuse

The juvenile justice and the adolescent treatment systems have various linkages that can be looked at for long term sustainability. A linkage between various serving agencies is one of the most notable system linkages. As far as system linkages are concerned, building positive relationships is always existent between the two. This has been done for an effective system to ensure that there are positive outcomes based on the correlation that exists (Antai-Otong, 2008, p. 17). There is a lot of appropriate supervision to ensure that juveniles and adolescents are transformed. This has been done by sharing information that can be used as time goes by to turn around both juveniles and adolescents. Cross system coordination has also existed as an important linkage that can be employed for long term sustainability. To ensure that system linkages are effective, there are a lot of community coordination links. Facilities are also a system linkage between the juvenile justice and the adolescent training system. There is no difference between juveniles and adolescents and this means that the system is linked by programs that will involve everybody (Copeman, 2003, p. 6). Another system linkage is research and practice that ensures that the needs of the juvenile justice and the adolescent training system are catered for. The legal system is also linked to ensure that cases are effectively dealt with. Question Two Treatment of substance abuse for juvenile offenders requires a lot of planning for efficiency. This means that there are a lot of clinical and programmati c issues that are involved in planning for treatment. Direct inquiries are made in relation to the treatment that will be offered to ensure that everything is well planned for. Design controlled clinical treatment is another aspect that is done in advance to ensure that juvenile offenders are attended to in specific reference to their problem. Everything needs to be designed from the beginning to ensure that there will be efficiency in treatment for juvenile offenders (Siegel, 2005, p. 19). An upward bound program is designed as far as clinical and programmatic issues are concerned to ensure that there is proper planning. Some of these aspects might include a counseling program that is always effective in ensuring that uveniles who have been abusing drugs are recovering well. Treatment planning is an issue that needs to be put into consideration with an aim of placing good guidelines that will guide the whole process. Before a placement plan is developed, there is need to do a behavioral observation on juveniles. This is because there might be some behavioral problems that might make it impossible to achieve effective treatment (Rang, 2003, p. 34). Juvenile offenders are supposed to be grouped in relation to their substance abuse needs and this is another issue as far as planning for treatment is concerned. Question Three Supportive programs and services are some of the factors that have been used to engage hard to reach adolescent populations. This is because some of these populations are always violent meaning that they are supposed to be approached cautiously. Voluntary counseling is a good approach to reach hard to find adolescent populations (Sullivan, 2001, p. 47). This ensures that they are positively influenced without creating any problem in relation to their general well being and welfare. Identification of specific characteristics in a given population is another factor that has always been used to engage hard to reach adolescents. As a matter of fact, identification of challenges is very important to ensure that a good program is designed for long term sustainability. Conclusion It is undeniable that drugs and substance abuse have become a very important element of youth culture as time goes by. In this case, the abuse of drugs has become a normal trend among the youths thereby forming a culture amongst them. This means that drugs give youths an identity from the rest who do not use drugs. All this withstanding, drugs will continue to play an integral part in youth culture (Copeman, 2003, p. 31). This is because they consider it as a normal thing and aspect of their lives. As a matter of fact, young guys who attend parties consider drugs as a must have. There are youths who are experimenting with drugs to fit in a given group and this could be because of peer pressure. This is what they consider as culture but it has occasionally led to substance abuse in the long run.