Significant Factors Affecting Addiction Treatment

Treatment Issues: Race
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Significant Factors Affecting Addiction Treatment
Four of the major factors include race, culture, ethnicity, and class. First, race is a significant factor that affects healthcare delivery. Some diseases or disorders show differences in the number of people based on race who seek and are being given medical care. An example of this is mental health issues. Statistics have shown that prescription medication for mental health problems was usually given among Black Americans compared to Hispanics. Among the latter, the use of prescription medication was most significant among White adults (14.4%), followed by Alaska Native or American Indian adults (13.6%), and Asians (3.1%) (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2015).
Second, different cultures contributed to the varying reactions in addiction treatment (i.e., illicit drug use, alcohol, smoking). For example, one study revealed that Eastern Cultures, particularly Asians, respond more holistically to social cues than Western cultures, focusing on focal objects embedded in many tasks. Addiction treatment implies that the Easterners can be influenced by collectivism and interdependence among the community members, while the Westerners have individualistic and independent social responses to treatments (Lv et al., 2016).
Third, ethnicity is a factor that results in social injustices in the form of unequal health access. It is especially true for ethnic minorities in the United States, where they are not given basic health care needs. The lack of access to what is basic prevents them from accessing complex mental health care, particularly concerning addiction. This is secondary to their higher than the average poverty rate, incarceration, discrimination, and homelessness. These result in poor healthcare access and the refusal to seek medical treatment secondary to existing biases (Bloom, 2016).
Lastly, Wood and Elliot (2020) demonstrated differences in the treatment among substance abusers based on social class. Opioid users under the working class are treated callously compared to higher social statuses, who are more respected and less judged. Moreover, the higher social classes tend to join the bias, degrading the opioid users of the working class.
Race as the Major Influence in Addiction Treatment Disparities
Factors
Some factors include healthcare access and utilization disparities, variations in health beliefs, and unequal treatment of patients. The first and most crucial problem is health coverage disparitie...