STEPS TO PREVENT DRUG ADDICTION

The best tool against developing an addiction is avoiding drug or alcohol use in
the first place. But that’s easier said than done. Many people begin using as
young as age 13 and are too young to realize the damaging impact addiction will
have on their lives. If you are lucky to have recognized the addiction pattern early,
then follow these steps to prevent drug addiction.

1. UNDERSTAND WHY PEOPLE USE DRUGS AND ALCOHOL

 Using addictive drugs (illicit or prescribed) for recreational purposes.

 Abusing an addictive prescription medication.
 Seeking out intoxication every time you use.
 Self-mediacation
 Genetics & Family History

2. UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN DRUG ABUSE AND

DRUG ADDICTION

Alcohol and drug abuse and alcohol and drug addiction are defined differently. A
person who uses heavily and then can abruptly stop is considered to be abusing
alcohol or drugs. But addiction occurs when the body requires the alcohol or
drugs to stop withdrawal symptoms. The line between abuse and addiction is not
solidly defined because a person may be abusing alcohol and drugs and
experiencing the negative consequences of addiction.

3. AVOID TEMPTATIONS AND PEER PRESSURE

You may have heard the expression, “You’re only as good as the company you
keep,” and in reality, that statement is true. If you have friends or family members
who pressure you to use alcohol or drugs, avoid them. Make new friends who
practice healthier habits, who do well in school, who are motivated at work and
who have goals.
Develop goals and dreams for yourself. Remember, alcohol or drug use can turn
to addiction rapidly; no one plans on becoming a drug addict or alcoholic. While in
active addiction, the only goal possible is to get drugs or alcohol to feed the
addiction. Regardless of whether it is abuse or addiction with drugs or alcohol,
both require professional addiction treatment.

4. FIND THE SUPPORT YOU NEED

People struggling with emotional distress are at greater risk for developing an
addiction to drugs or alcohol. Developing coping skills to . If you have events or
experiences in your past that affect your feelings, find a reliable and healthy
source of support.If you have depression, anxiety, paranoia or other mental
health problems, counseling or therapy and social communities such as religious
or spiritual organizations can help you work through negative emotions and
behaviors in a healthy, life-affirming manner. Remember that alcohol and drugs in
combination with mental health disorders only make the mental health problem
worse. Don’t try to self-medicate your feelings or physical discomfort.

5. PRACTICE HEALTHIER LIVING HABITS

Exercise, eating well and meditation are excellent ways to avoid using drugs or
alcohol. Quite often, the results you feel from living a healthier lifestyle can help
you resist the temptation to use drugs or alcohol to escape. A healthy body helps
you cope with daily stress. If you have practiced living healthy and managing
stress, a trauma can more easily be managed.

Addiction specialists can advise you about addiction to drugs or alcohol, mental
health issues and the combination of the two. This information can help you
prevent drug addiction. Family-based drug or alcohol prevention plans are also
highly effective at helping children avoid the temptations of drugs or alcohol.

Why do people take drugs?

In general, people take drugs for a few reasons:

 To feel good. Drugs can produce intense feelings of pleasure. This initial euphoria is
followed by other effects, which differ with the type of drug used. For example, with
stimulants such as cocaine, the high is followed by feelings of power, self-
confidence, and increased energy. In contrast, the euphoria caused by opioids such
as heroin is followed by feelings of relaxation and satisfaction.
 To feel better. Some people who suffer from social anxiety, stress, and depression
start using drugs to try to feel less anxious. Stress can play a major role in starting
and continuing drug use as well as relapse (return to drug use) in patients
recovering from addiction.
 To do better. Some people feel pressure to improve their focus in school or at work
or their abilities in sports. This can play a role in trying or continuing to use drugs,
such as prescription stimulants or cocaine.
 Curiosity and social pressure. In this respect, teens are particularly at risk because
peer pressure can be very strong. Teens are more likely than adults to act in risky
or daring ways to impress their friends and show their independence from parents
and social rules.

If taking drugs makes people feel good or

better, what's the problem?
When they first use a drug, people may perceive what seem to be positive effects. They
also may believe they can control their use. But drugs can quickly take over a person's
life. Over time, if drug use continues, other pleasurable activities become less
pleasurable, and the person has to take the drug just to feel “normal.” They have a
hard time controlling their need to take drugs even though it causes many problems for
themselves and their loved ones. Some people may start to feel the need to take more
of a drug or take it more often, even in the early stages of their drug use. These are
the telltale signs of an addiction.

Even relatively moderate drug use poses dangers. Consider how a social drinker can
become intoxicated, get behind the wheel of a car, and quickly turn a pleasurable
activity into a tragedy that affects many lives. Occasional drug use, such as misusing
an opioid to get high, can have similarly disastrous effects, including overdose, and
dangerously impaired driving.

Do people freely choose to keep using drugs?

The initial decision to take drugs is typically voluntary. But with continued use, a
person's ability to exert self-control can become seriously impaired; this impairment in
self-control is the hallmark of addiction.

Brain imaging studies of people with addiction show physical changes in areas of the
brain that are critical to judgment, decision-making, learning and memory, and
behavior control.12 These changes help explain the compulsive nature of addiction.
Why do some people become addicted to drugs,
while others do not?
No single factor determines whether a person will
become addicted to drugs.
As with other diseases and disorders, the likelihood of developing an addiction differs
from person to person, and no single factor determines whether a person will become
addicted to drugs. In general, the more risk factors a person has, the greater the chance
that taking drugs will lead to drug use and addiction. Protective factors, on the other hand,
reduce a person's risk. Risk and protective factors may be either environmental or
biological.

What is capability building?

Building capability is all about growing your organisation through individuals. In a

nutshell, it’s a framework for helping people in your team develop the skills they need to
succeed in the workplace. These skills can be:

 Technical or operational, such as meeting compliance needs.

 Soft-skills, such as people management.
 Related to culture or mindset, such as attitudes to new technologies.

Capability development is a broad term, but in the workplace it comes to life through
learning and development programs focussed on building skills. These could
be eLearning tools or regular training and graduate programs.
Important steps for building a capability development
strategy

1. Foster a culture of development.

Tools are a core part of developing your team's capability, but attitudes and behaviours
are what will make or break the success of your tools.

Create an environment where everyone, from managers to HR teams and trainers,

supports an attitude of learning and development. To do this:

 Lead by example. Roll out initiatives where managers are addressing their own
development needs through regular trainings, or the use of their own learning tools.
 Demonstrate commitment. Ensure managers commit resources to supporting learning
and actively contribute to capability development planning sessions, taking notable
interest in the ongoing development of teams.
 Allocate learning time. Rather than learning being an out-of-hours work activity,
integrate training time into work hours, through a monthly workshop or dedicated training
time.

2. Integrate feedback into your learning and development

framework.

Have you ever put in the hard yards only for it to go completely unrecognised? The truth
is that your hard work was probably appreciated but you just never received feedback
on it. Feedback is encouraging, motivating, and helps people in your organisation grow -
even if it is on the more “constructive” side!

Effective learning management means regularly

giving and receiving feedback, and creating a
supportive atmosphere where everyone is
encouraged to learn and reflect on their development
needs.
Give your team training to write their own objectives and outcomes. Ask them to identify
their own learning needs, and proactively suggest ideas for activities to help develop
these skills. Then select managers on your team that can help coach and support each
team member's outcomes, and have regular check-in points for reflection on their
objectives and their progress.

3. Make ethics and compliance training part of your learning and

development strategy.

All businesses have to consider ethics and adhere to corporate compliance standards,
and these should be included in the learning and development tools you implement,
either as part of regular trainings or youreLearning strategy.

As part of implementation, the most effective way is to make compliance and ethics
training part of the onboarding process for any new team members. Have team
members revisit trainings as well, either every 6 months or annually, to make sure the
material is always top of mind.

And don’t forget to keep your compliance training engaging and fun for your learners!
See our ready to goorganisational compliance training program for more information.

4. Ensure learning information is confidential.

As an employer, you have an obligation to make sure your team members are safe, and
that their information is confidential. If you have eLearning tools in place, work with your
provider to make sure data is stored securely. For an individual team member's
objectives, learning outcomes and feedback, set expectations and guidelines in place
with managers on confidentiality.

Go beyond just implementation as well – make a point of communicating your privacy

protection and confidentiality standards, so every team member is reassured that their
information is safe with you.

5. Optimise the accessibility of learning materials.

After you've gone to all the hard work of building and implementing your capability
development strategy, the next question is when and how your learning tools will be
used. For example, if your learning materials are just stored on company computers,
your team will be less likely to review and revise information than if it’s accessible
across all mobile devices.

To ensure your team makes the most out of your learning and development tools,
download our free eLearning accessibility checklist. Click the image below to get
your copy.

Ang pagpapalaki sa mga bata ng may mabuting asal ay dapat ginagawa araw-araw. Ito ay
isang proseso na nangangailangan ng displina at ibayong pasensiya.

Alam na natin ang mga bagay o gawain na dapat iwasan umapang mapalaki ang mga bata na
may mabuting asal, kaya narito naman ang mga bagay na dapat nilang matutunang sabihin at
gawin, dagdadg sa paggamiti ng “po” at “opo”.

Pagsasabi ng “please” at “thank you”

Kasunod ng pagkatuto nilang magsalita, kailangang matutunan ng mga bata ang
pagiging magalang, Ang pagsasabi ng “please” kapag humihingi ng tulong o nakikiusap,
at ang pagsasabi ng “thank you” ay mahalagang pag-uugali na dapat nilang
makasanayan habang sila ay bata pa.

Hindi pagsabad sa usapan ng iba

Kapag marunong ng magsalita ang mga bata, mahalagang ituro ng mga magulang sa
kanila kung kalian lamang sila puwedeng magsalita maliban kung ang kanilang
sasabahin ay mahalaga.

Pagsasabi ng “excuse me”

Kung sila ay sasali sa usapan ng iba o kaya naman ay sila ay makikiusap, pati na rin
kung sila ay didighay o kaya naman ay uubo, mahalagang malaman nila ang halaga ng
pagsasabi nito.

Hindi pagpuna sa pisikal na katangian ng iba

Kahit madalas ay kinagigiliwan ang pagiging matalas ng mga bata, minsan, ito rin ay
nakakasakit sa iba, Kaya naman dapat silang turuan na hindi punahin ang pisikal na
anyo o katangian ng ibang tao, kahit pa ito ay hindi nila kaharap o hindi sila maririnig.

Pagkatok sa pinto bago pumasok

Kahit pa hindi naka-lock ang isang pinto, dapat maituro sa mga bata na maging ugali
ang pagkatok sa pintuan na nakasara. Mainam na maituro sa kanila ang paghihintay ng
tugon ng nasa kabila ng pinto bago sila pumasok dito.

Hindi paggamit ng masamang salita o pagmumura

Madaling matuto ang mga bata ng mga salita, ito man ay sa panonood sa TV o kaya
naman ay sa mga tao sa kanilang paligid—lalo sa mga matatanda. Minsan, ni hindi nila
alam ang tunay nakahulugan ng mga salitang kanilang natututunan. Kaya naman,
siguruhing hindi nila ito magagamit at maituro sa kanilang hindi ito mabuting mga salita,
bago pa man nila ito makasanayan.

Hindi pangungutya ng iba

Ang pang-aasar o di kaya ang pangungutya ay tunay na masama pero hindi dapat dito
natatapos ang mga bagay na dapat iturong hindi dapat gawin ng mga bata. Dapat ring
maituro sa kanila ang hindi pagtawag sa iba ng iba’t ibang pangalan kahit pa ito ay
nakasanayan na ng iba.

Pagtatakip ng bibig tuwing uubo o babahing

Bilang konsiderasyon sa iba, kailangang matuto ng mga bata na takipan ang kanilang
mga bibig kung sila ay uubo o kaya naman ay babahing.

Ang pagtulong sa ibang nangangailangan

Ang pagiging matulungin ay mahalagang matutunan ng mga bata. Sa simpleng
pagtulong sa mga matatanda sa gawaing bagay, matututo ang mga bata na maging
matulungin sa iba.

Hindi pagsimangot kapag naiinip

Ang mga bata ay kadalasang kailangang umupo ng matagal sa eskuwela o kaya naman
ay sa simbahan, at hindi lagi ito masaya para sa kanila, kaya naman mahalagang
maituro sa kanila na hindi sila dapat sumimangot kahit na sila ay naiinip bilang
paggalang na rin sa iba.
Pagiging mapitagan sa pakikiusap
Maraming bata ang nasasanay na idinudulot sa kanila ang mga bagay na kanilang
kailangan kaya naman sa pagkakataong sila ay kailangan makiusap, madalas ay hindi
sila nagpapakita ng mabuting asal. Mahalagang maituro sa mga bagay ang pagiging
magalang at mapitagan lalo na sa pakikiusap upang hindi nila makasanayan ang
paguutos o paghingi ng hindi nagpapasalamat.

https://www.doh.gov.ph/sites/default/files/basic-page/3.%20Anti-Drug%20Campaign.pdf

What we want to achieve: 1. More effective leadership and governance for drug abuse prevention,
treatment and rehabilitation; 2. Provision of comprehensive, integrated health care services in TRCs and
community-based settings; 3. Implementation of strategies for health promotion and drug abuse
prevention; 4. Strengthened information systems, evidence and research.