INDIVIDUAL AND COMMUNITY IMPACTS

Substance abuse or the abuse of a behavior creates a wide variety of negative impacts which can affect each of the seven dimensions of health; the seven dimensions of health include emotional, environmental, intellectual, occupational, physical, social and spiritual. It has always been the assumption that substance/behavior abuse impacts solely the individual involved; however, this is not the case. Substance abuse not only results in individual impacts but it also significantly impacts the community, or society on a wider level. Possible community impacts can include effects to social relationships, effects on social welfare and effects on the health care system.

Personal relationships are important to everyone and they are an important dimension or our overall wellness. Unfortunately, relationships can be strained in the presence of substance abuse which can effect both the individual struggling with substances and they relationships they carry. Not only can personal relationships be strained as a result of substance use but other relationships within the community, at work, neighbors and so on can be affected but a variety of substance use factors such as: negative health effects, presence of illegal drugs, changing behaviors, unsafe lifestyles etc. Relationships can be damaged to irreparable means as a result of chronic substance use and this can be felt on both an individual and community bases.

Canada has many social welfare systems in place to ensure many Canadians can survive when living with limited means. These services can be frequented by individual experiencing substance related issues in unfortunately devastating ways. In some cases, substance abuse creates a need for child and protective services to be called, welfare due to job loss to be collected, or involvement from the courts and legal system to be necessary. All of these resources have a financial price to the greater community and Canadians as a whole. The use of these services and other services like them, again, impact not only the individual but the community as well.

In terms of our health care system, in Canada, we all pay taxes to help subsidize healthcare meaning every Canadian citizen will receive medical treatment free of cost (to an extent). We know that  there are a great deal of negative health risks associated with continued or chronic substance use/abuse which vary depending upon the type of substance as well as the frequency, duration, and amount of use. However, it is unlikely that prolonged, heavy use of a substance will result in little to no health consequences meaning that many substance dependent individuals will rely on the health care system for some negative effect of their use. We pay taxes to fix the disease, injury, and illness which are results of substance dependence. This is yet another way in which substance causes impacts on the community level.

There are many ways substance use/abuse can cause impacts both individually but it is important to remember that it is not only the individual who feels these impacts and are actually experienced by the entire community, however that may be defined. Both individual and community impacts give reason for treatment and support for individual suffering from substance related illnesses.