A study of the utilization of community meeting as an interactive strategy in substance abuse management

Abstract

In a treatment facility in Nigeria community meeting has been an effective strategy in substance abuse management for identifying and addressing motivation in the treatment, insight and judgment, self-esteem, psychotic symptoms, readiness for treatment etc. The components of community meeting significantly facilitate effective transition in stages of change. This research utilised information from various meetings, individual interviews and Focus Group Discussion. The study also obtained information about substance use from files of 211 participants previously admitted from 2014 – 2020, descriptive statistics using SPSS version 20 was utilized in the analysis. The analysis show that male were predominant at 91.9% with a mean of 1.08, 24.6% primary substance of abuse is alcohol and the most common substance abused at 29%. Clients admitted with psychotic symptoms were 47.9% and 29% common problematic substance is cannabis and 65% of them are within the ages of 21-30 years, while 45% of them have used other psychoactive substances like opioids and cocaine. The qualitative study reveals that all the components of community meeting significantly contributed positively in the management of clients. Consequently, community meeting gives people experiencing addiction the opportunity to self-examine, express, and adapt to techniques of living a substance free life effectively. This gathering allows all categories of clients interact freely and respectfully given way to teaching, learning and mentoring. The researchers therefore, suggest that though substance abuse problems may not vary, however, the approach to addressing this problem should be tailored in a ways that reflects the people and their culture.