Week 2 Assignment Essay

Josh Pike
02/9/13
Human Services

Contemporary Problems

When I compared two local agencies of Human Services I found Family Maintenance and Food Stamps. Between the two agencies I feel that people who have substance abuse issues are a target for these programs. We as people have struggled to control drug abuse as history has shown and have had little success with this. People who have struggled with this not only affect themselves but they affect people around them and affect the youth in our communities. People who have substance abuse issues many times have had babies who are already addicted to drugs due to being in the whom at the time of the mothers drug use. There are many children that also grow up in a household that one or both parents are using drugs and grow to learn that this is an acceptable behavior. I can personally say that I come from a family where both of my parents used drugs in the home, however attempted to keep it away from me and my brothers and sister. Children see everything and learn these things from what they see or hear. This is why I think that the Family Maintenance program that my local Human Services agency provides is essential in helping not only the children in the household but helping the parents with Substance Abuse issues. This program also provides counseling which I feel is very necessary in mending a suffering family. Although we are trying to help families in need with these programs and resources, it is not always going to fix the problem. I know that if you are not wanting the help or thinking that you need the help then usually these programs will not fix the substance abuse issues in the home. I would like to say that I only over came my addiction to many drugs because of finding out that I was going to be a father at the age of 20. When hearing this great news I knew that I could not let history repeat itself and knew that I had to look at life differently. I grew up thinking that I could only do as good as my parents did with me and felt like I had to deal with life the way they did and the way that I had always seen. I am really not sure what happened but at some point I knew that the way I always thought was right was actually so wrong in many ways. I say all this because I feel that if I had a program like this to help my family I think that I could have accomplished more in my life so far. One of the credible sites that I found information on regarding families with substance abuse talked about how children sometimes compensate for the other parents substance abuse. I felt this way growing up because I watched my father never keep a steady job and watch my mother always work more than one. We were always on welfare and food stamps. I tend to make excuses for my father because I heard them so many times from him why he could not work or was unable to. My mother was always frustrated with him and never really understood because I felt that my father was just unable to which in all reality he was

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