The research work that is going to be analyzed and discussed covers the topic of treatment methods for the use of addictive substances, such as alcohol, cannabis, and other. The article is published in the Drug and Alcohol Review journal in May of 2021. The title of the article is: “Facilitators and barriers to integrating physical health care during treatment for substance use: A socio-ecological analysis” (Osborne et al., 2021). The study focuses on the identification of the facilitators and barriers in applying physical health when treating alcohol and other drugs (AOD) use disorders within the socio-ecological model. There are several limitations of the study, which are addressed in the following paragraphs.
The importance of the study is that it focuses on the integration of the physical treatment with AOD related disorders, which was not conducted before. The article should have a better explanation of the importance of the research work. The article shows the importance of the work by just describing the negative consequences of a patient’s poor physical conditions. The direct relationship of the patient’s physical health conditions and AOD related treatments should be described to highlight the significance of the present study’s goal.
The hypothesis of the study is not clearly mentioned in the article. The article has a small literature review about the treatment methods of non-government organizations (NGOs), but it does not suggest the hypothetical outcome of the study. It leaves a reader with a sense that the authors are not sure about the outcome of the research work. The extensive literature review of current treatment technologies and systems and their analysis would be an efficient way to come up with a hypothesis of the study.
The method of the study includes interviews with clinicians and clients of NGO’s AOD services. The format of the interviews was face-to-face with audio recording. The study includes three NGOs representing both urban and regional AOD treatment services. The NGOs chosen for the research work should have been justified by compared all types of NGOs’ treatment methods and by explaining why the choices are the best representatives of the urban and regional treatment services. The number of clients who were interviewed in 20 patients, and the number of clinicians are 13 workers. There is a potential selection bias in a group of patients. More than half (11) of the clients were alcohol-addicted patients. The effect of addiction on the physical condition of the patient depends on the substance that is being addicted to. Hence, the importance of and significance of physical treatment in AOD related disorders are varying. Thus, the group cannot fully represent all patients for achieving the study goals.
A dependent variable of the study is the enhancement of the AOD services. At the same time, independent variables were identified as the result of the study. The factors and issues that facilitate or hinder the integration of physical health treatment into AOD services are independent factors of the study. The major independent factors, which were found in the study, are discussed in the next paragraph.
The major findings of the study are that the clinicians find it difficult to address the physical problems of the clients and problems with encouraging the clients the improvement of their physical health. Another barrier hindering physical health promotion is a lack of knowledge and skills of the health workers. Clinicians do not fully understand how to properly analyze the information regarding the physical health of the patient and which decisions to make based on the information obtained. Also, another finding is that even if some clinicians believe that clients are not motivated to improve their physical health, some clients indicated that they would appreciate any opportunity or effort, which would benefit their physical health. Moreover, the visit of an external healthcare practitioner was indicated as a facilitator of physical health from the perspective of clinicians, but not clients.
Reference
Osborne, B., Kelly, P. J., Robinson, L. D., Ivers, R., Deane, F. P., & Larance, B. (2021). Facilitators and barriers to integrating physical health care during treatment for substance use: A socio‐ecological analysis. Drug & Alcohol Review, 40(4), 607–616.