Substance abuse

Hi BettyBoop. I think your interventions would depend on whatever setting you're working in. I am a nurse working with opioid dependent persons and these are some of the steps I usually take when someone comes to me and admits to their problem with drugs:

1) Complete substance abuse questionnaire. These questionnaires ask questions like, How is it affecting your life?

2) Determine severity. Is the person using IV? Is there risk for death or severe withdrawal? How much is the person reporting to use? This may require an admission to an inpatient rehab

3) What are the motivations for wanting to stop drug use? Support the patient through that process-- you can use Motivational Interviewing for this (it's a counseling technique that many health care professionals are using these days)

4) Referral to a Substance Abuse Counselor- these are licensed professionals who are skilled in working with this population.

What do you have so far?

I teach psychiatric nursing and have used many different textbooks over the course of decades. All of them had quite a few pieces of information in them that would pertain to your nursing diagnosis. Have you checked your textbook or your nursing diagnosis book?