Alcohol And Drug Control Essay, Research Paper

Alcohol and Drug Prevention and Control Program

ADAPCP

The Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Program (ADAPCP) is a substance abuse treatment program used in the Armed Forces. The DA’s policy on alcohol is that “abuse or excessive use of alcohol will not be condoned or accepted as part of any military tradition, ceremony, or event.” This program is mandated by the public law 92-129, which is a law that mandated a program (ADAPCP) for the identification and treatment of drug and alcohol dependent person in the Armed Forces. The program is decentralized, and alcohol and other drug abuse and related activities are addressed in this single program. Any individual that is part of the armed forces (whether on active duty or retired), as well as, their prospective family members are available for this service. This program is necessary to protect Army and unit combat readiness and personnel’s health and welfare. There are seven functional areas of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Program. they are as follows: prevention, education, identification, rehabilitation, treatment, program evaluation, and research. There are nine objectives of ADAPCP:

+ Reduce the abuse of alcohol and the availability and abuse of other drugs within the Armed Forces.

+ Prevent alcohol and other drug abuse.

+ Identify alcohol and other drug abusers as early as possible.

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+ Restore both military and civilian employee alcohol and other drug abusers to effective duty.

+ Provide for program evaluation and research.

+ Ensure that effective alcohol and drug abuse prevention education is provided at all levels.

+ Ensure that adequate resources and facilities are provided to successfully and effectively accomplish the ADAPCP mission.

+ Ensure that all military and civilian personnel assigned to ADAPCP staffs are appropriately trained and experienced to effectively accomplish their mission.

+ Achieve maximum productivity, reduced absenteeism and among DA civilian employees by preventing and controlling abuse of alcohol and other drugs.

The rehabilitation program of the Alcohol Drug Abuse Prevention and Control program consists of two phases; the active phase and the follow-up phase. The active phase usually lasts for sixty (60) days while the length of the follow-up phase usually lasts for three hundred (300) days or ten (10) months.

The person responsible for the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Program is the Commander. The Commander is also responsible for making

sure that information on alcohol and other drug abuse and prevention aspects are

provided to all members to include civilian employees and their dependents. There are four important items that the Commander must do to make the program beneficial to the clients, they are as follows:

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+ Ensure that the prevention program (ADAPCP) is aimed specifically at individual target groups.

+ Ensure that the prevention program is coordinated with local civilian community efforts in drug and alcohol prevention.

+ Encourage a high degree of involvement of military community members in local civilian community prevention efforts.

+ Coordinate quality of life initiative with prevention activities by providing alternatives.

The Commander must conduct a briefing or an evaluation of the soldier within seven days of his or her arrival into the program. The evaluation is a vital part of the assessment process in planning, decision making, and management of the client (soldier). The Commander identifies the soldier as a possible drug or alcohol abuser by five objectives; they are as follows, self referral or self identification, command identification, biochemical identification, medical identification, and investigation and apprehension. Self-referral/ self-identification is considered the most beneficial method due to the soldiers’ realization that he/she has a drug or alcohol problem and seeks assistance. Command identification is where the commander becomes aware of a soldier whose performance, conduct, interpersonal relations, physical fitness, or health appears to be affected by alcohol or drug abuse. Biochemical identification is where the soldier is demanded to take a urine test and is identified as a drug or alcohol user by the positive urine test. Medical identification is where a physician gathers

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clinical information about the client and confirms that the soldier has a drug or alcohol addiction. After a soldier is clinically confirmed as an alcohol or other drug abuser he/she can be afforded treatment in the rehabilitation program for thirty days. Lastly, investigation and apprehension is where the soldier is referred to the CCC (Community Counseling Center), followed by enrollment into the ADAPCP for education and rehabilitation. When the Commander refers a soldier, he or she must participate in one or more of the three ADAPCP tracks.

+ Track I involves awareness education and group counseling, as required. Enrollment will not exceed thirty (30) days.

+ Track II includes nonresidential rehabilitation, which is an intensive individual, or group counseling which may include awareness education. Enrollment is for a minimum of thirty (30) days.

+ Track III involves residential rehabilitation where there is medical treatment with nonresidential follow-up. Enrollment in this track is limited to those clients who have been evaluated by a physician as requiring residential treatment. Generally, residential care will be reserved for those individuals with long-standing problems of abuse, but for whom prognosis for recovery is favorable with proper treatment. Enrollment is for three hundred and sixty (360) days.

The Commander has four initiatives they must implement for the ADAPCP, they are:

+ Make and keep appointments with an Alcohol and Drug Coordinator.

+ Identify personnel needing referral .

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+ Monitoring of ADAPCP clients.

+ Urinalysis testing.

Counseling is not the only option in the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Prevention and control program. There is also drug abuse education and detoxification that are available. The drug abuse education program is conducted throughout the Army Training System. There are five objectives of this program, they are as follows:

+ Inform all Army members of policy, operations and the extent of alcohol and drug abuse problems and programs.

+ Inform all installation members about ADAPCP services to prevent and control alcohol and drug abusers.

+ Provide commanders and supervisors with the information and skills they need to conduct affective alcohol and other drug abuse prevention, control, and rehabilitation activities within their unit.

+ Inform military members of services available to individuals desiring to overcome their own problems with alcohol and other drug abuse.

+ Provide military members of the community with the information that is needed to make responsible decisions about their personal use of alcohol and to avoid the misuse or abuse of other drugs.

This program helps the clients (soldiers) gradually deal with their substance or alcohol abuse. Detoxification involves withdrawing an individual from drugs of abuse including alcohol, and treating the physical symptoms of that withdrawal, and initiating rehabilitation. However, there are consequences that arise when the client

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continues to use, abuse, or misuse. This is called the exemption policy.

Exemption as defined in the ADAPCP program, is an immunity from disciplinary action or from administrative separation with less than an honorable discharge as a result of a certain occurrence of alcohol abuse or drug misuse, or possession of drug incidental to personal use. The main objective of this policy is to effectively identify, treat, and rehabilitate the client by eliminating the barriers of successful communications between alcohol or other drug abusers on the one hand, and ADAPCP counselors or physicians supporting the program on the other hand.

The exemption policy has five circumstances in which the policy does not apply, they are as follows:

+ If the soldier is the subject of an alcohol or abuse investigation concerning that offense.

+ If the soldier is apprehended for the offense.

+ If the soldier has been officially warned that he/she is suspected of the offense.

+ If the soldier has been charged under or offered Article 15 punishment for the offense.

+ If the soldier receives emergency medical treatment for an actual or suspected overdose and such treatment resulted from apprehension by law enforcement officials. However, the program does not grant immunity under the exemption policy for present or future use or illegal possession of drug or for other illegal acts, past, present, or future.