Hi, my name is Julia Conrad and I am a 21 year old student at California State University, Chico studying Health Science Education and Child Development. I am very passionate about public health and about helping others. I want to pursue a career in health education in order to spread awareness of certain health issues in society and to hopefully prevent these issues from escalating. I hope you enjoy my blog!
Opioid/prescription drug addiction affects primarily youth, adults and women.
Prescription drug addiction and abuse is a huge problem in our society. More than 20% of people aged 12 & older have used prescription medicine for nonmedical purposes at least once in their lifetime. The opioid crisis is currently a massive public health issue, with millions visiting the hospital each day due to overdose. The number of unintentional overdoses is soaring, and more and more people are becoming addicted to prescription drugs each year.
Women, the elderly, and adolescents are particularly at risk, as well as those who are homeless or have easier access to these drugs. The elderly have higher rates of chronic illness, and therefore more potential for drug interactions. Women are more likely to have chronic pain and be prescribed pain relievers with higher doses. Prescription drugs are the most commonly misused substances by Americans ages 14 and older, after marijuana and alcohol. They are also easy to access for adolescents, whether it be at school among peers, with friends or from family members at home.
However, adolescents who have good relationships with their parents and are more monitored, will be less likely to try prescription drugs for nonmedical use. People who have good health are also less likely to need prescribed medication, and therefore have a reduced risk of becoming addicted.
This is a systems map of opioid/prescription drug addiction. The map portrays all of the different parts that come together in public health to be assets within this system. It includes organizations, government agencies, programs and centers, health care sectors and public health agencies.
SAMHSA and other major administrations are working to help with treatment for opioid addiction. These administrations are also coming up with innovative medications to help treat prescription drug addiction. Although measures are being taken to mitigate the opioid crisis, there still is much more that needs to be done. The opioid epidemic is only growing, so clearly there must be more changes that need to be made.
My proposed solutions are to enable prevention and education programs leading up into high school that can be used to educate about drug safety, and teach important skills like academic support, communication, peer relationships and drug resistance skills. This is a way to protect adolescents from potentially becoming involved with prescription medication. Treatment programs should be much more easily accessible, and actually allow the patients the time and thorough help they need to overcome their addiction. Physicians cannot be over prescribing medications and should turn to alternative forms of treatment for pain when possible.
If you want to advocate for opioid addiction prevention and treatment, then please write a letter to Alex Azar, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services. He is available by email at secretary@HHS.gov. The letter could look something like this:
This letter can be used in order to advocate for implementing solutions to the opioid epidemic. In order to fix a problem in society, it is important that decision makers are reached out to so that they know that the public wants something to change. In order to do this successfully, it is important that you lay out the facts in your message, tell the decision maker why you want this to change, tell a story that involves the issue, and make sure that the message is given to the right audience.
I think that it’s extremely important that a solution is found to this problem because it is affecting so many people in the world, and only getting worse over the years. Drug addiction is a disease, and in many cases it is not a choice.
For some people, like someone I’ve met, they became addicted to opioids because they were given them when they were children by their addicted parents. This is just one example of a situation when the drug addiction is not the addict’s fault.
Drug addiction usually means that there is a deeper problem going on within the individual, whether it be mental illness, isolation or lack of loving relationships. I believe that humans are compassionate and should care about the health of others as well as the health of society. No child should lose their parent to an opioid overdose, and no parent should lose their child to an opioid overdose. Every day, more than 115 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids. More than likely, this problem has or will affect someone you know in your lifetime.
This first video describes drug addiction and what the root cause of it may be. It looks at the environmental factors of drug addiction, and how this can have a huge impact on why people begin to start using drugs. This video points out an important aspect of drug addiction: that those who become addicted usually do not have important human connnections and happy lives that they want to be present for.
In this video, the speaker describes the intensity of the opioid crisis, what causes addiction, and why it should be considered a “brain illness”. She discusses how our society needs to find other ways to deal with pain, rather than being prescribed pain killers, and how important human compassion is. This video perfectly describes the problem that is deeper than the opioid crisis.
Lastly, this video discusses possible solutions to opioid addiction for teenagers. It provides information about why this issue is so prevalent among adolescents and what needs to be done in order for them to be able to receive treatment more easily.
What if we could end prescription drug addiction? This video goes into detail about how serious the opioid epidemic is, the possible solutions we have to this problem, and what our society could be like without opioid addiction. Thank you for watching!
Opioid/ Prescription Drug Addiction 