BARRIERS TO TREATMENT

Barriers to Treatment
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Barriers to Treatment
According to Slesnick, Meyers, Meade, and Segelken (2000), various barriers limit the successful treatment of substance-abusing runaway youth. Firstly, these youth encounter significant stress levels when they are living in the streets. Indeed, substance abuse happens to be their only escape route from these stressful situations hence it becomes hard for the caregivers to tell them otherwise. For example, in the streets, the runaway substance-abusing youths do not have shelter or food, and such stressful situations impede successful interventions. Secondly, there is the barrier of lack of education, lack of access to medical care and the lack of job skills. The substance-abusing homeless youths lack basic education that can help them know the effects of the drugs on their bodies, and this hinders any successful intervention (Love, 2008). Additionally, the lack of job skills for the substance abusing homeless youths means that they do not have any alternative activities to do.
At the same time, the increased substance abuse for the homeless youths once they run away is also a barrier when it comes to treatment interventions (Slesnick & Prestopnik, 2009). For example, when the youths run away from home, they meet with other youths who face similar problems, and they decide to engage in substance abuse as a way of escaping their problems. Lastly, another barrier to treatment is the stereotypes about the substance-abusing homeless youths.

In essence, most of these obstacles are held by the caregivers who are supposed to provide treatment for the youth (Slesnick et al., 2000). These stereotypes include the notion that the substance-abusing youths are violent, and that some of them do not want to be helped. Nevertheless, the caregivers should approach them with an open mind with the aim of giving them effective treatment for better outcomes
References
Love, J. R. (2008). Runaways and street kids: Risks and interventions for homeless youth. Graduate Journal of Counseling Psychology, 1(1), 78-85.
Slesnick, N., Meyers, R. J., Meade, M., & Segelken, D. H. (2000). Bleak and hopeless no more: Engagement of reluctant substance-abusing runaway youth and their families. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 19(3), 215-222.
Slesnick, N., & Prestopnik, J. L. (2009). Comparison of family therapy outcome with alcohol‐abusing, runaway adolescents. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 35(3), 255-277.