Health Disparity Requires Increased Of Supportive Power,...

Advocating for this health disparity requires increased of supportive power, foundation, and execution of a political strategy (Jansson, 2011). To develop policy change, a coalition of individuals and organizations to support substance use prevention strategies is essential. Members of the coalition will include clinicians and organizations whose purpose is to implement prevention strategies among military-connected youth. The Department of Veteran Affairs provides a variety of services pertaining to military families, and adolescent patients would benefit particularly from substance use prevention. The coalition will have policy makers from schools or health-care organizations consider prevention models for military service children.†¦show more content†¦Policy Advocacy at the Organizational Level: School and Healthcare Settings Though the community will decide if substance use prevention strategies will be accessible for military-connected youth, policy advocacy embedde d within schools and healthcare organizations can focus on changing intake and having more trainings. Rates of child neglect in military families increase and not enough clinicians understand the psychological impact it has on youth (Lemmon Chartrand, 2009). Therefore promoting substance use prevention models respects, values and treasures the military family culture (Davis et al., 2012). Social workers can advocate for policy that requires schools and health-care providers to conduct screening for early substance use and facilitate access to services among military youth. For example, by implementing a policy that recommends pediatricians, school nurses, or school therapists to screen and evaluate youth whose parents have deployed and identify strategies to delay substance use. If this policy were implemented fully, substance use issues in this population could be addressed more promptly (Swahn, 2013). In addition, social workers can act as educators and hold trainings to increase the awareness of staff and military families. For example,