Abstract
This research explored comorbidity between psychological distress and drug use among patients in treatment centres in Jamaica and the possible implications for policy and programme design for treatment centres. The study was cross-sectional and consisted of 56 adult patients of Jamaican nationality, ages 18 to 70 years old being treated in centres for substance use across three parishes. Patients completed a questionnaire consisting of an adapted version of the EULAC-CICAD Admission form; the Kessler Intrument-10; and the Family APGAR scale. Results indicate that 10.7% of the patients were categorized to have severe psychological distress; 32.1% categorized with severe psychological distress. Across the general sample 66.1% have high perceived family functioning, 16.1% perceive moderate family dysfunction and 17.9% perceive severe family dysfunction. The predominant treatment received across the centres was counseling 83.9% and 83.9% of patients reported being satisfied with their treatment. Overall, results may serve as a stepping stone to larger work to be done in the area; so as to capture a better picture of the phenomena as it exists in Jamaica.
Highlights
The current research represents one arm of the multi-centric study exploring “Psychological Distress Among Patients in Substance Abuse Treatment Centres in Seven Countries of Latin America and one in the Caribbean: Policy and Program Implications”, where the focus of this paper sought to explore the Jamaican reality
It is not surprising that Jamaica’s society is riddled with problems related to drug misuse and abuse. This phenomenon has fostered the development of the National Council on Drug Abuse (NCDA) in 1983 and related acts
Since the establishment of the NCDA, it acts as the overarching statutory body alongside the Ministry of Health coordinating Jamaica’s drug demand reduction initiatives as well as facilitated projects dedicated to prevention and treatment of substance use problems (Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism).[3,4,5]
Summary
The current research represents one arm of the multi-centric study exploring “Psychological Distress Among Patients in Substance Abuse Treatment Centres in Seven Countries of Latin America and one in the Caribbean: Policy and Program Implications”, where the focus of this paper sought to explore the Jamaican reality. Since the establishment of the NCDA, it acts as the overarching statutory body alongside the Ministry of Health coordinating Jamaica’s drug demand reduction initiatives as well as facilitated projects dedicated to prevention and treatment of substance use problems (Multilateral Evaluation Mechanism).[3,4,5] The NCDA has agreements and supports a number of officially-licensed specialized treatment and rehabilitation centres across the island which has fostered information on trends related to substance use, misuse and abuse as well as treatment of these problems. The co-occurrence or comorbidity of substance use problems and other psychological problems have been and continue to be noted
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