Quality Study Evaluation of Lundgren and Krulls Article

Quality Study Evaluation of Lundgren and Krull’s article
The Affordable Care Act: New Opportunities for Social Work to Take Leadership in
Behavioural Health and Addiction Treatment
Your name
August 25, 2016
Your Institution of affiliation
Research Problem and its relevance to the field of counseling
Despite the shift in focus of administrative policies regarding the treatment of Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) in the US, Lundgren and Krull (2014) argued that there is still an enormous flaw regarding these current treatment strategies. According to them, one of the biggest and perhaps most urgent issue that has to be solved is the risk of excluding the most vulnerable population groups in the efforts of integrating behavioral health and health care services (Lundgren & Krull, 2014, p 415). Furthermore, they said that this risk is the main reason why there’s a ‘big gap’ between treatment methods and access of those who needs it most.
Although their article is mainly focused in the field of Social work, Lundgren and Krull provided a detailed comparative analysis of the health-care treatment of SUDs between two nations – US and Sweden. In the field of mental health counseling, it’s obvious that this provides a very important and indispensable information since it addresses the needs of “vulnerable groups” (low economic status, immigrants, African Americans, etc.) that have less-to-no access to these treatment methods. As is generally accepted in the field of mental health counseling, these populations are more prone to emotional and psychological illness due to substance abuse for a number of reasons. Thus, this information should serve as a wake-up call and a recommendation on how to focus policy making to allow better access and affordability to counseling treatments. According to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (2013; as quoted by; Lundgren & Krull, (2014)), among the 24 million young individuals and adults who needed specialized treatment in a facility for SUD only 4 million (16.7%) received the much-needed treatment. Based on this fact, much attention can now be shifted to the country’s efficiency in delivering treatment to its citizens and also a general picture of the status of the country’s mental health.
Research purpose statement and questions
The main purpose of the research is not only to shed light on the dwindling quality and quantity of the country’s addiction health services (for knowledge’s sake) but also to provide an alternative suggestion regarding how these institutions can be improved. More specifically, the research gathers data and facts by synthesizing numerous articles on social work, addiction treatment, and mental health and “key features of the current U.S. addiction treatment system with respect to access, cost, and workforce capacity, with a focus on both disparities and the role of social work” (Lundgren & Krull, 2014; p. 415). Then, the article would shift its focus to suggesting/illustr...